Electrical water heating is responsible for more than 30% of household energy usage. South Africa has 5.4 million electrical water heaters. Despite its prominence, users have very little knowledge and understanding of their own warm water consumption patterns, and how their behaviour affects their energy (and water) bottom line.
We have developed a system that monitors electrical water heaters, and automatically extracts usage information. For example, a user of the system can easily see for each day how many baths, showers, and other usage events have occurred at what times.The system does not only provide consumption analysis, it also provides remote control of the water heater to the user through a web site and mobile phone app, and more importantly, it recommends optimal control schemes to users to minimising "standing losses" based on measured consumption patterns. The user is able to implement these changes in control settings through the click of a button. The user can also change their control settings (schedule and temperature), and see a prediction of the expected savings based on the control scheme changes.
Intelligent Geyser System Pamphlet
Example breakdown of usage event costs (energy and water).