I’m a Dad. When I run a bath I hang around waiting for it to run. Usually I grab my guitar or my Rubik’s cube and play around for a bit. Most of the time I lose track of time and find my bath is “overflowing” by the time I realise I should still be keeping an eye on it.
My kids are the same, usually they don’t wanna bath, they’re playing games or something.
So I got a couple of Tuya water leak sensors off Ali for £4 each, one for each bath.
I installed mine yesterday on the back of a basket that we keep bath things in hanging from the shower. I’ve run the wire down, around the taps and a dab of glue on the back of the sensor to stick it just below the overflow.
Now when my bath water touches it, all my bedroom, kitchen and front room lights will flash for a second and my GH speakers will announce that my bath is run.
I plan to do the same with my kids’ bath, I just need to find somewhere to put the sensor.
It’s an idea I’ve had for ages. Next idea is to have one placed in the downpipe from my guttering so that I get notified when it’s raining, saving my washing from getting wet. We live in the UK so rain is pretty common.
Any other creative uses for normal sensors? Share them here for the community.
You are allowed to get in the bath while it’s running.
Indeed. If op fills the bath to the overflow and then gets in, guess what. It’s gonna overflow.
Also, just take a shower for peets sake.
I have showers too but I like a bath, always have done. It’s my time away from it all. Also I’m getting older as we all are, and have a more physical job now. The baths are great for my thrown shoulder and glass back.
May I point out you’re talking to the guy with 2 baths, I may be a little biased.
I’ve had one in the humidifier tank for a few years, leaving a notification on my phone when the water tank is dry. Don’t forget that these leak sensors also function as dry sensors
That setup has some wire going into the tank from the sensor because I don’t think the sensors are supposed to be submerged for months at a time
Just a consideration on this, but would they not also use up more battery as a “dry” sensor (assuming they use batteries as the ones I have do).
For leaks, the sensor activates when water bridges the poles, which should be a rare thing. For dry, you’d be in a constant state of activation - which I presume requires passing a current through the fluid between poles - and thus consume more battery.
That was a concern for me, yeah, but the reality is that I change the batteries once a year, maybe? I can’t remember the last time I did it, over a year. The amount of current that goes through is very small and they only need to send current through for less than a millisecond maybe once a second. So, super low current that’s only active, maybe 0.01% of the time
Sick! Can you elaborate on the setup and devices used?
Yeah it’s not rocket appliances, it’s simply a ZigBee water sensor from Tuya hooked into ZigBee2MQTT. The contacts on the wire are set just below my overflow on the bath.
In Node Red (because that’s what I use, not because it’s required) I have a very simple flow. If the leak sensor is “on” trigger a notification and “turn on” the lights in “these areas” with a short flash.
Simple as that.
Just tried it out, had lights flashing as I went up to check on it and apparently the TTS notification when haywire, so I need set it to fire once lol
Here’s a link to the sensor I bought for anyone interested https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005220809595.html?spm=a2g0n.order_detail.order_detail_item.3.1411f19cSsrYfN
The best thing I ever did with home automation and children is to setup motion sensors in the hallway and tie it to my WLED strips. If anyone in the house leaves a bedroom at night, led light strips in the hallway, along the stairs, and downstairs turn on low and red for 5 minutes. There’s no turning on lights or forgetting to turn them off. It’s bright enough to see but not so bright that is jarring. Also, using red light doesn’t kill your night vision when you go back to a dark room.
Yeah I have a very similar idea going on, all the hallway lights are on motion sensors and I use Adaptive Lighting to turn them on Night Mode when everyone goes to bed.
I have 3 spots in the hallway outside the kids rooms and they used to wake the youngest up when he was smaller so I have 2 of those not work at night so just the furthest from his room comes on low brightness, enough to see by but not enough to wake him.
I love my Hallway motion sensors. We live in a 4 storey town house with the kitchen (and washing machine) on the ground floor and it used to be a right ballache carrying washing from the ground floor to my bedroom, turning lights on and off all the way up with hands full. Nowadays it’s as simple as walking
