this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2023
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Correct way to control Sidewalk Heating Mats (lemmy.today)
submitted 11 months ago by Buelldozer@lemmy.today to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world
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I ordered some sidewalk heating mats from HeatTrak and I want to automate them with HA so that they come on when it makes sense to do so based on the data from my Tempest Weather Station.

According to HeatTrack my mats will have a combined resistive load of 5A which is well within the spec of the Zooz ZEN05 or ZEN14, both rated for 15A resistive loads, but when I asked them about it they did not recommend using either of them with heated mats. They couldn't, or wouldn't, explain why and it doesn't make sense to me why this wouldn't work.

My next thought was to simply swap the outlet to something smart but this is an outdoor outlet so it needs to be GFCI and there's essentially no Z-Wave GFCI outlets made.

Do I really need to use something like an Enbrighten Z-Wave Plus 40-Amp contactor for this or am I missing something here?

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[–] bigredgiraffe@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

So I am definitely not an electrician by any means but I noticed on their site the ZEN05 says “Do not install the device in a place with direct sun exposure, high temperature, or humidity.” which seems pretty silly to me for something that two lines above says it is outdoor rated hah. I bet that is why they said not to use it though, heat+melting ice will generate humidity or something. I wouldn’t be placing the device next to the heating pad if it was me anyway so I would think it would work, your logic seems sound to me, I probably wouldn’t even have asked zooz now that I think about it.

That said, I’m going to need to hear more about these heating mats, I have some sidewalks that I don’t enjoy shoveling hah.

ETA: forgot to include, I use the GE version of that ZEN05 outside (since 2019) plugged into a GFCI outlet and it works fine, it definitely has very direct sun and gets all weather too.