Super Crazy Automated Bathroom Project
(This is an ongoing project)
I've been needing to renovate my bathroom for a long long time now and I think I'm finally in the house that I'll be in until I'm an old fart so I thought I would design/build the most amazing bathroom experience one could ever imagine. And I love playing with electronics so why not build it myself? Given the size of this project I'm braking this blog out into multiple sections that I'll try and keep updated at my work progresses. Everything will be open source and I'd love to get feedback from anyone who has some expertise they would like to share.- General Overview of Features
- Plumbing the bathroom and layout of valves and sensors
- Designing the software (gitHub repository)
- Control Circuitry (EDA project )
It would make sense to build a working prototype of the valve/control system before actually renovating so I've started by making a list of all the features I want and then ordering the parts I'll need.
List of features
- Pre-heat the water with a circulating pump,
- originally I was going to have the valve open up until a temp sensor detected the pipe was warm but the bathroom is a ways away wasting a lot of water, and so I thought it would be a lot more energy efficient if instead I used a small pump instead that would just circulated the cold water back to the tank inlet.
- Precise temperature control
- For this I've ordered two motorized flow control ball valves from assured automation.
- Automatically fill the tub with live feedback on the water level
- I've given a lot of thought about how to pull this off in a way that's both reliable and simple. So I've taken the idea from a washing machine. An air pressure sensor that is connected to a hose that enters the bottom of the tub.
- Multiple shower heads with independent control
- For this solenoid valves make the most sense as they are relatively inexpensive and can be controlled by a simple relay&digital IO
- Fill the tub crazy fast
- A standard bathtub is connected to 1/2" piping which has an area of .2" (A=πr2). The main line for the house is 3/4" which has an area of .44". So if I changed out all the piping to 3/4" right back to the water main theoretically the tub could fill up 2.2 times faster.
- Automatically drain the tub & and do it crazy fast. For this I'm thinking of using an electronic 3" butterfly valve and connecting the drain to the main line which isn't far from the toilet.
- Jets, obviously..
- Heated jets.., we've all been chilling out in the tub until the water starts to get cold and had to drain a bit and add hot water to heat it up again. So why not add a heat exchanger in series with the pre-heat pump to keep the tub hot?
- Control from phone, touch screen, and Google home voice.
- Steam so that the tub/shower area can double as a steam room.
- No Knobs.
Current Parts List List
| Part | Price | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Arduino Nano | ||
| RaspberryPi | ||
| 2 Electronic Mixing Valves | ||
| 5 Solenoid Valves | ||
| 2 Temp Sensors | ||
| 1 Flow Sensor | ||
| Air Pressure Sensor | ||
| 3 Check Valves | ||
| Circulating Pump | Free | Had this left over from an old hot tub I took apart. |
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