Using thermal transients at the outlet of electrical water heaters to recognise consumption patterns for heating schedule optimisation
Date
2015-07
Authors
Nel, P. J. C.
Booysen, Marthinus J.
Van Der Merwe, B.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Abstract
In the midst of environmental concerns, and soaring energy costs and energy shortages, the efficiency of electrical household water heaters (EWHs) has been identified as an area with significant potential for savings. The benefits of applying optimised scheduling control for EWHs has been proven by various
studies, however, little has been done to measure individual behaviour. This paper presents an alternative to the invasive and expensive solution of using water flow meters. A hardware and
algorithmic solution is presented that uses thermal transients at the outlet of an EWH to measure consumption patterns. The results show that the approach is able to detect usage events with
an accuracy of 91%. Despite the challenges related to thermal inaccuracies, event durations are estimated to within 2 minutes accuracy 79% of the time.
Description
Nel. P. J. C., Booysen, M. J. & Van der Merwe, B. Using thermal transients at the outlet of electrical
water heaters to recognise consumption patterns for heating schedule optimisation, IEEE NTMS , 27-29 July 2015, Paris, France, doi:10.1109/NTMS.2015.7266530.
The original publication is available at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ez.sun.ac.za/xpl/mostRecentIssue.jsp?punumber=7210292
7th IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security (NTMS)
The original publication is available at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ez.sun.ac.za/xpl/mostRecentIssue.jsp?punumber=7210292
7th IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security (NTMS)
Keywords
electrical household water heaters (EWHs), energy costs, energy shortages, water flow meters
Citation
Nel. P. J. C., Booysen, M. J. & Van der Merwe, B. Using thermal transients at the outlet of electrical
water heaters to recognise consumption patterns for heating schedule optimisation, IEEE NTMS , 27-29 July 2015, Paris, France, doi:10.1109/NTMS.2015.7266530.