Adding a Well Control Device to your Smart Home

Supplies

The first thing we’re going to need to do is gather the required supplies:

1. Zooz 700 series smart switch
2. 1 gang electrical box
3. Electrical Handi Box JBH-4960-KO or similar (10”x10”x4”)
4. C230B 220v contactor
5. 14/2+g NMB electrical wire
6. 8/3+g NMB electrical wire

We would recommend that you purchase 2 smart switches and 2 C230B contactors so you can have a spare on-site and ready to be swapped out if either fails. In 9 years, we have never had a contactor fail, but we have had a different brand of smart switch routinely fail (hence why we now recommend the Zooz and not other brands). Having a spare smart switch that is pre-paired to your network and ready to be swapped by local management is probably a good idea.

Basic electrical design

At a high level, what we are going to accomplish is the following:

1. We will place the Handi Box, which will contain the C230B 220v contactor, in between the main power of your well and the well itself. Ideally:
   1. The Handi Box can be wired with two tails, a 8/3+g with a 30A 220v plug and a 110v plug, and a 30A 220v outlet.
   2. All of the above can be hard wired instead, as needed by the requirements of installation.
2. The 110v 14/2+g wire will run from the Handi Box to the 1 gang electrical box, to be switched by the Zooz smart switch
   1. The hot of the 14/2+g entering the 1 gang electrical box will connect to the line terminal of the smart switch
   2. The hot of the 14/2+g leaving the 1 gang electrical box will connect to the load terminal of the smart switch
   3. The neutral of the 14/2+g entering the 1 gang electrical box will split, connecting to the smart switch and to the neutral of the 14/2+g leaving the 1 gang electrical box
   4. The ground of the 14/2+g entering the 1 gang electrical box will split, connecting to the ground of the smart switch and to the ground of the 14/2+g leaving the 1 gang electrical box
   5. The hot and neutral of the 14/2+g wire entering the Handi Box will connect to the 110v pins of the C230B contactor, and the ground to the Handi Box ground
3. The power side of the 8/3+g entering the Handi Box will connect to the original power for the well.
   1. Connecting to the original power could be plugging the 8/3+g power tail into your existing 30A power outlet for the well, or hard-wiring to the existing power source
   2. Both hots (black and red) of the 8/3+g entering the Handi Box will connect to one side of the C230B contactor’s main 220v terminals
   3. The neutral of the 8/3+g entering the Handi Box will connect to the neutral of the 8/3+g leaving the Handi Box
   4. The ground of the 8/3+g entering the Handi Box will split, connecting to the ground of the Handi Box and the ground of the 8/3+g leaving the Handi Box
4. The output side of the 8/3+g leaving the Handi Box will connect to the well.

Electrical one-line diagram

An electrician may want more details than the dialog above, so the following one-line diagram may be of assistance.

Well control

With the above wiring completed, the well 220v breaker in the electrical panel will always remain on. In order to turn off the well, the smart switch will be switched off.

When the 110v power is lost to the C230B contactor (by turning off the switch), it will disconnect the relay connecting the two branches of hot wires of the 8/3+g wire, cutting the power to the well.

When the 110v power is restored to the C230B contactor (by turning on the switch), the relay connecting the two branches of hots of the 8/3+g wire will restore the connection, powering on the well. The contactor will continue to connect the two branches of 220v power until the 110v from the switch is again turned off.

You can then add the Zooz smart switch to SmartThings, naming it “Well control.” When you switch the power on to “Well control,” the well will be on and water pressurized, and when you switch the power off to “Well control,” the well will turn off and will no longer be pressurizing your water system.

When the well is off, with a normal-sized pressure tank there will still be some pressure remaining, but if the worst were to happen and a leak occurred, only a few gallons of water will leak before pressure is lost.

If you have a larger pressure tank or cistern, you may wish to mitigate more risk by adding a Zooz smart water shut-off device after the pressure tank or cistern. Rental Home Automator can control both the “Well control” and the water shut-off device, ensuring no more pressure is added to the tank and the pressure in the tank is isolated and off.

Alternatives

While we have found the recommended option above to be the best and most reliable way to set this up, introducing a switch on the wall that can be manually toggled by cleaning or maintenance staff if needed, there are simpler options available.

1. Elk Heavy Duty Contactor box

The Elk Heavy Duty Contactor box comes partially pre-wired and creates a similar setup to the recommended method described above. This option is more expensive than the recommended option, and requires the use of a smart-plug instead of a smart switch, but overall works in the same way and is wired similarly.

With this option, we would recommend you purchase an additional C230B contactor to have on-site as a back-up in case the Elk contactor fails and you need local management to swap it out. In 9 years we have never had a contactor fail, but it still feels like a good idea to be ready.

We would also recommend getting a spare smart plug and having it pre-paired to your network as a backup in case it fails, although in this case you could temporarily plug the box directly into continuous power as a short-term fix.

2. Aeotec Heavy Duty Smart Switch

The Aeotec Heavy Duty Smart Switch is an all-in-one 220v 40A switch that can also be used in the same manner as described in this article. While the simplicity of the device is enticing, we don’t have any experience using it, so we have a few considerations to share:

1. It is a Z-Wave device, so a smart hub and proximity to the smart hub or a Z-Wave repeater is required.
2. In the event of a failure, you probably need to have a second one of these devices on property and pre-paired to the Z-Wave network, ready to be swapped out if needed.
3. There is no physical switch or button on this device, so toggling it can only be accomplished through SmartThings.

Benefits of well control with Rental Home Automator

Even though you are not draining the water to release pressure between rentals, adding this “Well control” device, when combined with Rental Home Automator’s automatic well control functionality, will ensure your well is only on when your property is occupied and off when vacant.

With this in place, most short-term rental insurance companies will offer a rate discount due to mitigating the possibility of catastrophic water damage from a burst pipe or leak, even if you don’t add the second water shut-off device to isolate the pressure tank.