Home Automation

Hello all, I'm writing this thread to ask all of you about automating a home. I have a SLC-5/01 processor (hoping to get a 5/05 soon enough) and have a couple of things I want to do/monitor, but was wondering what others would do given the chance? So I pose the question, what would you automate in your house?

I would automate my wife to fetch beer

I really don't have any more good suggestions but this project has been discussed here. Do a search here on home automation.
There's quite a few such as.

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=39979&highlight=home+automation

If you figure that out, let me know how you programmed her so I can do the same....
Yep, I've been going through them, but was just wondering what to automate.

Thanks for the response

It is your house. It is up to you to automate what ever you want.
I think it depends on if this is a
tinker project
concept testout
money (energy) savings

Again what do you want it to do or accomplish?

Dan Bentler

Mark Buskell said:

I would automate my wife to fetch beer

Click to expand...

Oooooooooh brave man, I don't know you (or you're wife) but trying that on mine would be like poking a hungry Grizzly with a sharp pencil..

doors and lights ! because I can't the bloody kids to do either !

Show me the Money... or

..What is my motivation.

Yes we all use PLC's and HMI's at work to do wonderful tasks, but the home (residential) environment is typically mastered by mass produced devices, like garage door openers, and home automation via cheap stuff like programmable thermostats and motion activated sensors to control room lighting.

I would like to put the power of INFORMATION to my financial gain.

I am looking at measuuring and documenting utility (energy) useage and logging to data file for graphical analasys.

I have found products on the internet to add to my electrical panel that will document kwh which is what I pay money for for electrical utility. I have not made the purchase yet.

My next project... I have a natural gas meter that is mechanical, and has to be read each month (or estimated) by our gas supplier to determine billing. What would help me is if I could collect DAILY gas use electonically to data.

Is there any simple in-line gas flow meter that has a pulse output or analog output based on gas flow?

Step one of automation should be to quantify BEFORE data, then apply the automation, and then review the AFTER data, to determine the return-on-investment.

Hi,
I always liked the door action on the "Star Trek" series. Whenever someone approached the door, it would automatically open & then close behind them.

The dome light on the wife's Volvo is nice the way it automatically dims gradually a few seconds after you close the door.

I've been wanting to build a home heating/cooling air circulation blower that is automatically started/stopped and speed regulated. Think climate control with a PID loop!

What about controlling the water heater in a manner that shuts it down when your away at work?

BD

I use a plc at home to control my pool pumps and yard lighting. Pump run time is set according to the date using the plc rtc. My next step is to use a solar sensor to further adjust the time. Less time = less money.
Am also in the process of replacing the solar pump controller using the plc. Wont be hard to improve on it's performance, I'll swear the program must have been done by someone who failed at the traffic light assignment, eg start pump every hour and run for 5 min, if water hotter continue until its not then stop (that is the total control program!) but if it has just run for 55 minutes and stopped, it will still start again in 5 minutes (DOH) and then because the water not hot stop and wait another hour. I plan to use a few ideas to increase efficiency -solar sensor
-modify start and stop times according to the season
-learn from the previous run (if really cold then not worth running for a few hours)
-when I stop wait for a calculated time (not every hour on the hour)

Just an example

bikerdude said:

Hi,
What about controlling the water heater in a manner that shuts it down when your away at work?

BD

Click to expand...

Good idea, but you'd want to turn it down not completely off as that would lower the water temp and just cost more to heat it back up when you got home.

One thing I was thinking of automating would be truning off the power to electronics that are't being used during the day/night. e.g. TV, VCR, home audio system...the stuff that slowly sucks power even when turned off.

Plastic said:

..What is my motivation.

I would like to put the power of INFORMATION to my financial gain.

I am looking at measuuring and documenting utility (energy) useage and logging to data file for graphical analasys.

I have found products on the internet to add to my electrical panel that will document kwh which is what I pay money for for electrical utility. I have not made the purchase yet.

My next project... I have a natural gas meter that is mechanical, and has to be read each month (or estimated) by our gas supplier to determine billing. What would help me is if I could collect DAILY gas use electonically to data.

Is there any simple in-line gas flow meter that has a pulse output or analog output based on gas flow?

Step one of automation should be to quantify BEFORE data, then apply the automation, and then review the AFTER data, to determine the return-on-investment.

Click to expand...

FIRST if your house is not as insulated as it could be spend your money there. Best return for the buck.

2 Did a few energy recovery projects in operating facilities. Agree that measuring consumption is mandatory before you do anything.

3 A lot can be done with just the utility meters - I found a daily reading was quite adequate - of course as with any statistics the more readings the more accuracy AND the more nuisance and cost.
4. Used Fluke data logger and flow sensors and thermocouples to measure heat obtained from waste water and put back into cold supply water ie Q = MC dT
5. You can get flow meters (water gas etc) with electronic output check with gas company. Another method is to measure gas flow (say furnace or dryer) get value of cfm THEN use the start relay to measure time to get time x flow rate = volume.
6. Not sure cost efficacy of monitoring each and every load at the power panel. Major loads of course -- but you can also measure these using input power (like the furnace) and just measure the run time and multiply by power flow.

Do not overlook the cheap n dirty n quick ways of measuring energy used by appliances. Dryer - a load is about 4 Kw Hr.
You can get this from
970 BTU/lb x WEIGHT (wet clothes - dry clothes)

A key thing to remember is if you are doing this to save dollars is
1. Turning things off or not using is free
2. Extracting wasted energy (dryer exhaust) takes more equipment and money. It will pay off sooner for large family than small family.

Dan Bentler

thought about it for years,

But, who wants to go online to figure out why a closet light wont come on?

My version would have every light and recepticle on a relay with a single PB for the lights.

Walk into a room push the button, light comes on, X time later light goes off. You could add motion or iR, but most of the time you only need a light on for a few minutes. Push the button twice in 5 seconds and the light stays on for X times 2 minutes. Up to a max. The kids rooms and bathrooms would get 30 minutes or less. Push the light button on the way out and the light goes off immediatly, but if anyone would do this it would make the whole circuit meaningless. They leave the lights on all day and just keep adding more lights until all the lights are on, then they go outside..............

The recepticles would all be reset at some time in the PM. No up late gaming or TVs and no power draining devices.

A switch on every door and window, could be used as a simple alarm system. But I would tie the door and window opening to the HVAC. You want the door open for 5 minutes while the differential temp is greater than 15 degrees? OK no HVAC for 6 hours. Window open with heat on? Nope. Make the people who do these things uncomfortable with some feedback and they will stop doing it or suffer.

My favorite light idea is a light bank. You get 2 hours of light a day in each room. Maybe less. Would need to do a study but the difference between sundown and bedtime should be the max light needed.

Solar sensor would inhibit lights in rooms with windows. Maybe even a photo sensor in the room to allow for cloudy days and eclipses.

Pantry door looked by thumbprint lock.

Automatic strip lights under sinks and in closets.

Hot water control.

Of course temp control on HVAC with a TC in each room and average to get the whole house temp so no more freezing in the back room with the thermostat in the hottest room with the big south facing window.

pressure sensitive door mat that gives alarm ..........doorbell button records image of person but does not make repeated noise , switches to mild electric shock if pressed more than twice in 5 minutes.

Exterior microphones. Good stereo mic is better than a camera.

automatic blinds that assist the HVAC with temp control and lighting.

Blinds would be white on summer side and flat black on winter side.

Exterior blinds/ storm guards / shutters ( why are they shutters and not openers?)

Porch light that comes on when large metal object comes up the driveway, goes off X minutes after door is shut.

Prox switch to sense when dead bolt is extended.

Now the question is, while all this would be fun, would it be worth anything?

All the relays and PLC would have to be on using power. double coil relays would require no power to remain in position. PLC failure would have a large impact on daily life. None of this stuff is free or cheap and the extra wiring would be difficult. Wireless or X10 would help that part.

You can do almost anything with automation that people can do. So ask yourself , what do I want to happen here under these conditions......and then get the hardware and hook it up. The software would be simple in most cases.

Killercal:

Try this: http://forums.mrplc.com/index.php?download=9

Killercal,

Good idea, but you'd want to turn it down not completely off as that would lower the water temp and just cost more to heat it back up when you got home.

Click to expand...

That is a common misconception. If I remember my Heat Transfer section of Mechanical Engineering 101 (had to take that course two times!), the heat loss from the water heater is never 0 BTU. So leaving it on all the time means you are paying for that continuous small heat loss. It will always cost less to leave it off then heat it back up, than to leave it on all the time (provided your local utility company does not have a peak-period penality, as few yet do for residential use). The longer you leave it off the more you will save.

Back when my wife and I were going to a job regularly, I installed a simple 7-day timer on the side of my electric water heater. Off at 6:30AM when we left for work, on at 5 until 12PM, then off to 5AM. I noticed that the water does not cool down more than 3 degrees if left off 8 hours. The heater quickly recovers from that small loss.

Looking at it more simply, if I pay to recover a 3-degree loss overnight, with the timer I only pay that one time. If the heater is on continuously, I may pay to recover that 3-degree loss 2 or 3 times each day.

When we retired (habits more erratic), I disabled the timer, and our electric bill jumped up about $15 a month.

Now that I think about it, rates are even higher now. Maybe I should reinstall that timer.

Killercal said:

Good idea, but you'd want to turn it down not completely off as that would lower the water temp and just cost more to heat it back up when you got home.

One thing I was thinking of automating would be truning off the power to electronics that are't being used during the day/night. e.g. TV, VCR, home audio system...the stuff that slowly sucks power even when turned off.

Click to expand...

Or you could buy one these.

http://www.greenswitchteam.com/