Flow Switch for Automating a UV Water Filter - Baan Suan Duangjai

In this video we install an electrical flow switch on a drinking filter water line to turn on and off a UV filter automatically; to save on energy usage and reduce how often the filter needs to be replaced.

A simple flow switch will enable you to turn on and off an electrical device determined by whether water is flowing or not. This is a useful switch for automating things or making your own custom systems.

When these switches have three wires, they can actually be uses to measure the rate at which water is passing, but that typically requires a small circuit board to read or process the information. We could do that, but in this case it would be no benefit (unless we plan to sell quantities of water from a coin operated machine); instead our water will be free of charge and we will use a basic two wire switch.

** See in the video how we have blown this switch ** at first the switch is off... then it turns on as it should when water is flowing; it immediately blew out because the UV filter takes 2 more watts than the switch can handle. After the switch is blown it no longer works and just stays on all the time... In cases like this where you can't get a switch strong enough, you can use a relay.

Perhaps in the future, we can show how to use a relay to avoid the problem that surfaced in this video. Maybe also do a more advanced project where we can measure the water with an Arduino!