Jonathan Brown

Hardware solution for intelligent domestic electric water heaters with behavioural analysis
Masters in Engineering Student

The focus of my project has consisted of the design and construction of control and monitoring units for domestic water heaters. This unit was designed to be a comprehensive solution for the hardware required for cloud based water heater control and monitoring. The control units measure power consumption as well as temperature and water flow. Additional incentive for the user is provided in the form of a leak detection sensor and supply cutoff valve. Ten of these controllers are to be manufactured and connected to ten residential water heaters and the resulting data used to implement energy saving control schemes and to provide feedback to the users about their usage patterns.

From these results the efficacy of intelligent control and rapid feedback in reducing water and power consumption can be determined.
Near real time control and status reporting are achieved by compliance to existing M2M protocols. Feedback and control options will be made available to the user by means of an app or website. The units were designed to use either either cellular or an existing WiFi network to implement the feedback and control.