Automating & Securing your Indoor Grow Room using Z-Wave Home Automation Technology

Detecting Leaks

Another amazing device we added to our grow room was the Fortrezz Z-Wave Water and Temp sensor. This tiny little device can save you a bunch of time and money if you have a leak and it’s caught early enough. Most importantly it can save your plants. We paired the device with Vera with a click of the configure button and added the device to our grow room. We placed the device down on the floor outside of our Aeroponic reservoir where if we had a leak it would pool there quickly. We then setup a Scene in Vera to alert us if the device goes off – Either a Water Leak or Temp below 36F will make the device beep and notify Vera. Vera can then activate the “Water Leak” Scene and it sends us a txt message or email within 30 seconds. Although this device was initially designed for detecting leaks under water heaters and sinks, we find it as one of the most important devices in our automated grow room.

Monitoring Water Levels and Soil Moisture

fortrezzwwa04 One of the most vital things in any garden is water , and it’s especially important to the Hydroponic and Aeroponic gardener. Monitoring water levels in your reservoir tanks will save your plants and pumps if for some reason you have a leak or unexpected drop in your reservoir. Another device from Fortrezz which is pre-production is the 4-in-1 water and freeze sensor. This device gives alerts not only for the presence of water but can also indicate alarm on the lack of water. This means the device can detect both leaks and low water levels. This nifty little device is very similar to its little brother the Fortrezz water and freeze sensor, except it has an external probe as well that you can stick in soil or secure in your reservoir at the low water level. Install the probe and set a scene in Vera to alert on this sensor. You now have instant plant and pump insurance if you have a leak or your water level drops for some unknown reason! These Fortrezz devices are low cost yet provide you with peace of mind and are a big part of my indoor grow room insurance plan!

Transferring Nutrient/Topping Off/PH Adjustment

Vera could also be used to manage your pumps and hydroponic/aeroponic reservoirs by setting virtual timers in Vera. By setting a scene that turns on your transfer pump for one minute can top off your reservoir, or if your camera shows low PH, turn on a transfer pump to transfer your PH up solution into your reservoir – all remotely! We used outdoor Z-wave modules from GE that our transfer pump plugs into. Once we paired that Z-wave device with Vera, we setup a manual scene in called “Top-off” to turn on the transfer pump whenever we wanted to top-off our solution.

Securing your Garden with Z-Wave Sensors

Vera also adds security to our garden with the use of door and window sensors, motion light and heat sensors and the addition of a few Linksys IP camera’s. For Motion, Light and Heat detection, we use the HomeSeer 3-in-1 sensor. Vera has the capability to sync with this 3-in-1 sensor which monitors motion, light levels and current temperature. We plopped some batteries in the sensor and installed it in the far corner of our grow room after pairing with Vera. We could now instantly see the temperature and light level inside our grow room and enabled alerts to our email or cell phone if temperature goes above or below a certain level. We also like that the sensor could detect motion for added security and if desired we could set an alert if motion is detected. The light sensor in the device can also come in handy to detect a bulb or light failure by sensing light levels at certain times. If the light level is low when the light is supposed to be on, this would indicate a bulb or ballast failure and would alert us via txt message.

Another amazing way to secure your home or grow room is with the Schlage LiNK door lock. This amazing deadbolt or handle lock speaks Z-Wave and can also be paired with Vera. Once you pair it, you can then lock and unlock using a key, a 4 digit code, or from any web browser (using a secure connection). You can also use the lock with Vera to enable scenes that can send txt and email alerts when the door is locked or unlocked, or if someone enters an invalid code. This lock can truly enhance the security of your premises no matter where you install it.

Some other products that can be used to secure your home and indoor garden are door/window sensors, vibration sensors and a combo strobe/alarm are future Z-Wave products that Fortrezz is working on and these are sure to add another level of security. Everspring even has a Z-Wave enabled smoke detector! This smoke detector, once paired with Vera, will alert you of a smoke alarm via email or txt message within seconds no matter where you are! See our Z-Wave Photo gallery for details on some of these products.

Watch your Garden Grow Remotely with Live Video

wvc54gcalinksyscamera-large As previously mentioned, Vera can also interact with IP video cameras and grab snapshots from specific cameras based on sensor data or at a certain interval that you set. This means that you can setup the motion sensor to detect motion and trigger Vera to take a snapshot from inside the grow room. This snapshot gets stored on the FindVera servers for added security and can be reviewed at anytime. These snapshots can be useful to catch an intruder of the human or animal kind, such as a small mouse coming in to feed on your Aeroponic lettuce!

Another nice feature of integrating IP cameras into Vera are the archived images using FindVera.com service ($29/year) Within Vera you can set a camera to take a snapshot at a custom interval and save that snapshot to the FindVera servers. This allows you to go back over time and review images, or if you can view live snapshots at anytime when you log into Vera remotely. We setup a few Linksys WVC80N cameras inside and outside our grow room to add security and then linked them to events in Vera. We could then review these events and associated images at anytime at home or on the road. For a detailed review of a Linksys WVC54GCA camera, see http://www.MyHomeServer.com

Automating Saves Time, Electricity and offers Peace of Mind

As you can see, adding in Z-wave automation into your Grow room can save you both time and money. You can reduce the trips to check on your grow room by simply opening your laptop and viewing the camera and status of lights and sensors. Adding a second camera pointed at a wall mounted PH and EC/TDS meter can give you information remotely on these vital statistics of your reservoir if you grow with Hydroponics or Aeroponic methods. It doesn’t take much to purchase Vera and a few Z-wave modules to start automating your lighting and that’s a great place to start. Ditch those mechanical timers and jump on the Z-Wave bandwagon, you won’t regret it!