Modest : water heater smart control and management

Abstract

Recent advances in microcontroller technology have given rise to the Internet of Things (IoT), which has created new opportunities in energy automation and optimization. Smart devices and appliances are able to collect operational data, and combine it with data analytics to facilitate optimized control of household electronics. For example, data collected from a smart thermostat can be combined with third-party data sources such as; 15­min interval electricity usage data collected from a smart meter, weather data from numerous sources, utility billing rate data, and data from other smart appliances in the home to optimize the energy usage of residential heating and cooling system. The goals for this project are: 1) Design a control system that enables collection of temperature, flow rate and power data, 2) implement the control system in an electric water heater for residential use, 3) create a connection between a cloud server and the water heater control system for data collection, and 4) develop an advanced control algorithm for water heater thermal management. The main contribution is meant to be a cloud-based infrastructure for IoT aggregation and control, a kind of artificial intelligence for IoT and energy automation.