Gizmo for contolling a remote Gas Stove via PC

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JDR

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Maybe it is a pipe dream but...........:rolleyes:

Looking for a way to link up from my home to cabin PC and turn on the Gas Stove.:)

Last weekend I arrived with outside temp at 22 and inside temp at 50. Took a few hours to get 'er warmed up.:(
 

Southern Man

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I have a winter cabin that I set up to turn the heat on by telephone using an X10 Touch Tone Controller. Here's how it works.

I have an inexpensive thermostat set up in the mud room. This room has an outside door, a dog door, is small, and so of course is the coldest room in the house when the heat is turned off. I set this thermostat to 45F. It’s wired directly to the air handler unit, which is a heat zone on the basement oil fired boiler. I call this the “default thermostatâ€.

I have a second thermostat on the main floor interior hallway. This I leave set at 70F. It is wired through a low voltage X10 module, so when the module turns off, the thermostat does not communicate to the air handler. The X10 module is plugged into a 120V wall receptacle, and its low voltage contacts interrupt the 24V thermostat signal. I call this the “normal thermostatâ€.

I then have an X10 Model TR16A Touch Tone Controller. It is plugged into a receptacle and also to a telephone jack.

Before I leave the cabin I turn the normal thermostat off by using the key pad on the controller. I can also turn it off at the module itself, or of course, using my cell phone. Before my next visit I call the house 2 hours in advance, wait for the controller to answer with a tone, type in my code, the controller responds with three beeps, then I press 1* for “module 1 onâ€, then the controller responds with 3 beeps and turns the thermostat on.

“Bugs†in the system included poor communication between the controller and the module. I found that the X10 devices do not communicate dependably across “sides†of the breaker panel, so I made sure that controller is powered by a receptacle is on the same “side†as the air handler. In fact, it is the same circuit.

A second bug was that the controller would overheat. I had it set on my work bench and it became covered up with work gloves, so it stopped working until it was reset by unplugging it briefly, which of course negated the whole remote control thing. So I put the unit on a timer which turns it off for a short period of time in a 24 hour cycle. That particular unit must have had a defect (or I had initiated on by burying it under a pile of gloves), and eventually had to be replaced. I keep the new unit on the time just in case, plus I have it set on a wire shelf unit so it gets a lot of air circulation. In any case it seems to operate at only a slightly elevated temperature, just like any other plug-in electronic device.

In any event the system is working well after three years. So well, in fact, that I added two more modules. Module 2 shuts off water to the house. A lot of times when I leave I have the dishwasher running a last cycle, and of course this needs water. An hour after I leave I can call the house and turn the water main off. I did this by inserting a ¾†Rain Bird sprinkler valve on the water main. I have a 24V transformer, always on and powers the valve. A second low voltage X10 module interrupts that circuit.

A third module controls the domestic hot water. Sometimes my wife wants to do a load of laundry that she didn’t get to the week before, or we were pressed for time and had to pick up one of the kids from practice, and needs to take a shower right when we get there. So I call the house 20 minutes before we get there and turn the hot water on. When I get there I then turn on the water main, and everything is ready to go.
 
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