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Old 05-15-10, 01:05 AM   #11
Piwoslaw
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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...


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Old 05-15-10, 09:34 AM   #12
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Haha.. semi-intelligent.. I'm not going to take the as an insult..

But, I think you might be on to something, with 'when no one is home and at night'..

Believe it or not, I too was thinking about using a timer, logically ANDed with a motion detector.

The timer would be and old Programmable thermostat and
the people detector function would come from an IR sensor
strategically placed in a living area (kitchen/eating nook?).

SparkFun Electronics - PIR Motion Sensor

The IR sensor output would drive a 1-hour 555 timer. The 555 would
re-start if anyone walked into the IR zone.
But if everyone stayed out of the IR zone for an hour, the 555 would switch OFF.

SparkFun Electronics - 555 Timer


So, my oil burner could come on at 8AM, if someone was up and about..
Otherwise, it would stay off all day. And then go off at 8PM..

The two signals, IR People detect AND Programmable timer (Tstat) would
Enable the oil burner. But, it would not come on and start using oil,
unless the water temperature was down to the 'low' setting on the boiler.


I kinda like this idea. And, the timer (Tstat) runs on AA power, so it's
not going to be effected by grid failures..

Cheers,
Rich
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Old 05-16-10, 01:01 AM   #13
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I thought about a "people sensor" but I would like to keep this simple to install even if it makes it slightly more complex to build, why? because so far everyone that I have talked to around here about this has said that they want one... sure my house saving $300 a year is one thing but so far around 10 people have said they want one! and it's not even built.
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Old 05-16-10, 09:08 AM   #14
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It would surely be harder to install. But, this gismo is going to be connected
to some AC down on the water heater. So there is going to be some amount work
that needs to be done by a knowledgeable person.

If you did place an IR sensor in the living area, with a couple extra wires, it could
be used to display Boiler Enabled status with an LED and could also have
a toggle switch that could be used to disable water heating, even with people
there during the day. (In case it was picking up house pets?)..
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Old 05-17-10, 08:36 AM   #15
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A friend of mine suggested having it hook in to Google calender so it would keep track of what you were doing that day and adjust accordingly, that way you could also tweak it from any smart phone.
I just want it to turn off at night and after I leave for the day.

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