View Single Post
Old 10-01-14, 03:41 AM   #4
SDMCF
Apprentice EcoRenovator
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Finland
Posts: 125
Thanks: 5
Thanked 35 Times in 34 Posts
Default

This is interesting to me because I am working on a temperature controller with design goals that are very different but maybe the hardware could be similar. You want a constant temperature and I want to control or even promote temperature fluctuations.

Initially I am controlling my freezer temperature. Our electric tariff is linked to the wholesale electricity price. This varies hour by hour, with the prices for each hour of each day published on the web around midday the previous day. My controller will grab these prices from that web page and then control the device(s) to minimise costs. So the freezer will run to a lower temperature when electricity is relatively cheap, and allow the freezer to warm up (but still keep it "cold enough") when prices are high. Eventually I hope to apply this approach to control other things, not necessarily temperature-related. Mainly for geek-appeal rather than in anticipation of huge cost savings.

I am creating my own controller based on an Arduino because I couldn't find anything off-the-shelf that I could easily modify for this purpose. When you were searching for a controller did you find any with an internet connection? Or any way of externally (programatically) setting the required temperature?
SDMCF is offline   Reply With Quote