Can anyone help with pointers for automatable garage heaters? So far my searches aren’t finding anything. My requirements are:

  • remotely preheat when I want to work out
  • alert if it’s left on, or automatically turn off

I’m in the US, looking for 240v maybe 5,000w electric heater. The basic item is cheap and readily available at home centers or online. I even see variations with Bluetooth remote and/or controlled by app.

I’m looking for something locally automatable. Matter/Thread would be ideal but I’m fine with Zigbee or z-wave. But I’m not finding anything like that, and getting stuck on some vendors portal is not ok. Any leads?

Or something that can use an external thermostat - I actually have an extra Ecobee - that can be locally automatable. Any leads? Any search tips that might find such a thing?

I briefly thought of automating an outlet, however even if smart outlets are available for those loads, that wouldn’t work because all these heaters have a safety feature to run the fan until the unit is cool

  • Canonical_Warlock@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    5·
    2 days ago

    It you’re using a relay to turn it on and off then just put like a 90F furnace high limit switch on the air inlet side of the heater and run the control signal for the relay through that high limit switch. That way if the air going into the space heater gets too hot from the room getting too hot or the area around the heater gets too hot from the fan failing, it’ll shut off. Also furnace safeties are cheap, easy to find, and already designed to fail open circuit for safety.

    • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      21·
      1 day ago

      And built into the heaters already.

      Clearly people here have never tried to maintain these things - the safety in them today is annoyingly extensive. They fail for the most trivial things (which really is for the best, just a nuisance from a maintenance perspective).

      • Canonical_Warlock@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        To be fair, I don’t think I’ve ever actually bought a space heater. I just get them from places and they’re always from the early 2000s at best. The ones I’ve worked on usually only have a fuse in them as far as safety features go. I’m glad new ones are more safe though because they used to be deathtraps.