A design chalange, build a smart water heater timer.

Piwoslaw · 05-15-10, 01:05 AM

The more semi-intelligent you want this to be, the larger the chances it will outsmart the home owner

Seriously, having it look for complicated, multiday patterns in hot water useage will be, well, complicated. How about this: A superinsulated tank that shuts off when noone is home and at night (it could be programmed like the thermostat of a home's heating/AC system), or just before. After that is a small on-demand heater in case too much hot water gets used up and/or is needed at a non-normal time (guests, holidays, etc.).

Of course, semi-inteligent, complicated, multiday pattern recognition is interesting in its own right...

05-15-10, 01:05 AM	#11
Piwoslaw Super Moderator Join Date: May 2009 Location: Warsaw, Poland Posts: 961 Thanks: 188 Thanked 110 Times in 86 Posts	The more semi-intelligent you want this to be, the larger the chances it will outsmart the home owner Seriously, having it look for complicated, multiday patterns in hot water useage will be, well, complicated. How about this: A superinsulated tank that shuts off when noone is home and at night (it could be programmed like the thermostat of a home's heating/AC system), or just before. After that is a small on-demand heater in case too much hot water gets used up and/or is needed at a non-normal time (guests, holidays, etc.). Of course, semi-inteligent, complicated, multiday pattern recognition is interesting in its own right... Last edited by Piwoslaw; 05-15-10 at 01:14 AM..