Pool Fill
My pool has a nice little drain at the top that makes sure the pool never overfills. The downside of this “nice” feature is that I often start to fill the pool and then forget to turn it off!
I initially tried to solve this with wireless water leak sensors that I mounted in my skimmer baskets. This wroked for about a day until leaves and other junk filled the skimmer baskets, so I switched to a float switch that had a high and low limit switch. The next catch was where to mount it. I wanted a good water level, but did not want something that would trip on and off when people were in the pool. After some thought I realized that my pool lights ran to the garage via a 3/4″ counduit, if I connected that to some sort of water collum I would have a great water level chamber that would not change that much with people splashing around.
The design I seteled on for my chamber was a simple 4″ PVC T with both ends caped off. I drilled holes on the ends and inserted 3/4″ connectors for my PVC conduit in the ground. After digging around for an hour or so I found the conduit and cut out a section that matched my new T. However before I cut the conduit I had to pull the wires out for my pool light and temp sensor. As I filled the hole with dirt I put a 6″ sprinkler valve box around it so I would be able to have a nice way to access my float switch. To mount the float switch I cut another 4″ PVC cap in half and drilled a 3/8″ hole for the float switch. Since half the cap was cut off I was able to see the water level and adjust the float switch as needed.
Float Removed
Float on T
The last thing I needed to do was install a 3/4″ valve and connected it to my home automation system, this was a simple 24 V AC valve and that was simple to control with a relay. I also added the High Limit and Low Water inputs to my system and added a few lines to the control code:
When Fill Pool &IF Pool Overfill SECURE &IF Pool Low SECURE: Pool Fill ON FOR 30 MINUTES
When Pool Overfill NOT READY: pool Fill OFF
When Pool Low NOT READY: Pool Fill OFF
