Question

Is there such a thing as a water heater gas control that can smarten a dumb water heater? I had to replace my control valve once and figured that must be a way to be able to report on water temp, set point, usage, gas consumption, etc. Here's what I'm using today.  
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...74HFk

Answer 1

Www. aquanta. io Does not integrate with ST but does the job for me. No idea why remote operation of gas water heater is against the codes and which particular codes it violates but this thing is for sale in the US for gas and electrical heaters. I don't see the difference between the gas heater being driven by a dumb thermostat or this device.  

Comments

@kali55 adding an internet controlled device to a water heater that wasn’t manufactured to include it is going to be a hard sell to your insurance provider if your house burns to the ground

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Don't see why - it's a control circuit on a gas devices. Fires are not caused by control circuits but faulty gas conduits or pilots.  

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If the control circuit crashes and the gas gets stuck on or the temperature otherwise gets too cranked, the water will overheat and start spewing out the relief valve

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@tamqrah23 same can happen without automation. That’s why you have the relief valve.  

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@kali55 - do you like Aquanta? I had to put a new water heater in last week and have been thinking about adding it. Wasn’t sure if it was worth it. For everyone else, from what I have seen about Aquanta, it can’t override the max temperature you set on the tank. So you could set it higher on the tank, but keep it lower in the software.  

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@haiti I like Aquanta. My heater is electric, I wired it myself. It gives you control over the heater which is otherwise on all the time. Yes, the water heater thermostat determines the max temperature.  

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@kali55 you are optimistic

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I have a gas water heater and have it plugged into smart outlet which reads energy consumption. I use Smart logger smartapp to log usage to a Google Sheet. Once in the sheet I can extract on off intervals and use this to tracks gas consumption. It's not 100% but good enough. Standing water temp is a little harder but I'm sure you could install an external probe inside a thermocouple.  

Answer 2

No. Remotely automating a gas device is against several codes. Also not something you want your insurance company finding out about.  

Answer 3

They DO make smart gas valve assembly’s that can be controlled via wifi, however that would need to be installed by a licensed gas fitter etc. Edit: they’re usually only available pre installed on new tanks I think, your google mileage may vary.