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Outsmarting my lying washing machine (lemmy.nocturnal.garden)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world
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The washing machine tells me how long it's going to take when I start it, but it's often wrong and takes longer. I've been descending into the basement countless times, usually from the first floor, only to notice it's not done yet.

This is just a small thing but I want to share anyways: I just plugged it in a Zigbee plug with power meter and put an entity icon into the default dashboard. It's conditional and only shows up when power!=0.0.

No more pointless stairs!

Screenshot from a dashboard, showing some entities like temperature etc

Screenshot from the same dashboard, with an additional yellow icon showing its currently using 53W

I have moved it next to the basement temperature but it's not running right now and I don't want to forge the screenshot so it's showing before the change.

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[–] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

We occasionally forget to press the washer's "start" button and only realize it an hour or more later. An automation sending a notification when the washer's powered on (with a low current reading for a few minutes) but not started solved that. A "Cycle Complete" notification is sent when the current goes from > 1A back down into the low MA range when the wash is complete.

If you stick a Zigbee vibration sensor to the dryer you can set up the same "cycle complete" notifications even if the dryer's 220V.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 9 months ago (3 children)

    The first one would help us as well since it sometimes doesn't register the start properly (even though it makes a confining beep), but the idle wattage is measured as 0.0 so I can't track it.

    We don't have a dryer

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    idle wattage is measured as 0.0

    That's odd. I have multiple Third Reality smart plugs and they measure at least a couple of watts of standby power for everything that has a power button.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 9 months ago (1 child)

    It doesn't do much, just display some seven segment duration timer and indicators for chosen rpm and temp. 1-2W should be sufficient I guess and it's probably out of the plug's accuracy range

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

    Probably is an accurately limit as you say.

    I just looked and my LG washer pulls 7 watts when not powered on and my Onkyo receiver pulls 2 watts in standby. I save a whopping $19 dollars a year by powering off the washer completely via automation when it's not in use. Not much, but better in my pocket than the electric company's. (I have a sensor on the laundry room door that turns the washer plug on when the door's opened.)

    You could work around it by sending an immediate notification when the washer starts. If you don't get one you know your washer's messing with you again.

    Edit: Just looked again and after a few minutes the washer's down to 10MA in standby. Power button on pushes it to 7W. Not saving any electricity after all, but hopefully the washer will last a bit bit longer if it's powered completely off between uses.

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