Sump Pump/Electric Question

McGray

McGray

McGray

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Joined
8 Dec 2008
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Wise ol' people of GD...

My Dad recently added a sum pump to his garden pond set up after a bit of a disaster in the wet weather. Everything is working fine but he wants to know how often the pump is turning on.

Is there anything he can plug which counts each time the pump comes on or draws power or summat?

It's not really for measuring purposes, more because he is retired and has to know these things!

Cheers.
 
The simplest way would be to add an "hours meter" to the circuit,
eBay, a couple of your English quids.

Wouldn't give the frequency, but near enough.
 
Hmmmm these appear to record the length of time something operates rather than how many times it has operated.

Any other ideas?
 
could get a cheap nasty chinese PLC and set it up. Some of the siemens logo clones would be perfect. Prob cost 50quid ish
 
McGray said:
Hmmmm these appear to record the length of time something operates rather than how many times it has operated.

Any other ideas?
Click to expand...
Not quite sure why he wants the event count tbh :confused:

The problem is event counting doesn't have a domestic application other than in knitting and sports events, so nobody makes cheap kit for it.

You can get electronic event counters, but then you need a way of interfacing the event to the device, this then creates the problem of multiple counts being triggered by a 'bouncy' input signal.

So yes you can do it, but you'd need to know how to wire up some basic electronics and hand over £20+ for the joy of gathering some pretty pointless information :)
 
It's totally overkill but if he's retired and really must know get him to hire a cheap single phase power analyser. Can probably get one for about £50 for the week. It'll tell him when and for how long it operates and what power it actually uses. Then he can use it to go round the house seeing how much power everything uses - as I'm sure retired people love that kind of information.

The CTs need to go around the individual cores though which may prove problematic for most household appliances. Can do it at the meter, main DB and probably the junction box where the pump is terminated.

Failing all the above can't he just sit there watching it?
 
^
some of those power meters will store a graph of power, you could log the usage with that.

have a look on eBay for
"AC 220V 4 Terminals 5 Digits LED Display Accumulator Electric Counter"

Not entirely sure of the input required, it appears to be 220v AC.
Since the sump pump is going to self contained you'll need to detect when the pump turns on, a 240v AC relay coil in series with the pump supply should work. Use the contacts to trigger the counter.

Being mains voltage, this is not something to mess with if you are unsure of what you are doing.
 
Could use something like a pulse flow meter, Turbine Flowmeter,& then connect the wires to a digital counter.

Seen this setup used with koi carp ponds, have a look on that auction site.
 
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