DIY Remote WiFi Control for Water Heater Using ESP8266

Automatic Timed Heating and Power Off Requirements

No need for requirements analysis, simply put, I’m lazy. I don’t want to heat water every day. Don’t tell me to keep it on all the time; my NAS isn’t always on either, energy saving is a nationwide action.

• Power-on timing settings

• Power-off timing settings

• Power-on startup signal feedback

• Power-off signal feedback

• Productization: The timed power on/off function can be productized. The last remote control required a public IP… you know what I mean. However, adapting the infrared signals from different manufacturers’ water heaters is a big workload.

Below is the remote control function I developed last time

I bought a water heater a few years ago, and for various reasons, I ended up not buying one with WiFi. Later, I found that it was very necessary to remotely control the water heater’s startup from outside.

This type of storage water heater generally has a power of 2000W-3000W, and heating a whole bucket of water takes a long time. So many times when I come home late, I can only wait for the water to heat up slowly… It would be great if I could spend the least amount and use a simple device to add a remote WiFi control feature to the water heater.

After much consideration, I finally filled this gap. We city folks know how to have fun, right?

• ESP8266 NodeMCU V3 (V1 is also okay; I switched to V3 because there was an issue with the 3D printed case for V1)

• Infrared transmitter tube (about 1 yuan for 5)

• Resistors (100-200 ohms are fine)

• Case (optional)

• Power supply (micro USB power cable, phone charger)

• Double-sided tape (for fixing the case and infrared transmitter tube)

As shown in the image:

• ESP8266 (NodeMCU) connects to the public network via home WiFi

• Mobile phone or computer controls ESP8266 via the internet

• ESP8266 simulates the original remote control to send infrared on/off signals to control the water heater

• It’s that simple

• Simple and straightforward – only created a large power button

• Used traffic simulation for external network testing

• Web interface, not internal network penetration; using port forwarding, don’t ask me about public IP

• Nothing more to say, don’t look down on Unicom, it really works well (I’ll tell you more about this later, this is not an advertisement)

Close-up

The red part is heat shrink tubing to prevent short circuit, the resistor is just a resistor, exposure issues are not too critical, needs improvement.

Far photo

Thanks to netizens for reminding me, the bathroom has high humidity, which may cause problems, so I added a plastic wrap; double-sided tape is really useful.

The red wire in the picture is heat shrink tubing to prevent the infrared transmitter LED pins from shorting. Don’t ask if this is safe; it is not connected to 220V, but controls the water heater switch by simulating the remote control via infrared.

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