Greetings!
I stumbled across this site yesterday, so I quickly registered, and here I am!
I am about to embark on an ambitious HVAC monitoring and control application for my recently acquired 30 year-old home up here in frigid Minnesota. I have some very unique requirements (IMO) and would love to discuss them with anyone who is interested. Some of the key aspects are:
Three different heating systems:
1) Off-Peak Electric (mostly Radiant ceiling panels, wall-mounted space heaters in basement), 15 thermostats
2) Off-Peak Electric Heat Pump (efficient above 30 deg F outside temp), 1 thermostat
3) Backup Propane Forced Air Furnace (using same air ducts as heat pump), 1 thermostat
So there are lots of items to monitor and control!
My house is COMPLETELY finished with sheetrock in EVERY room. In addition, every interior wall I have poked into is insulated, so fishing CAT5 wires to each room is essentially out-of-the-question. Thus I am strongly considering building a Wireless Sensor/Control Network using board-level modules (integrated radio, CPU, IO) from companies like Jennic (www.jennic.com). These seem relatively cheap ($20 us), capable (32 bit CPU, A/Ds, D/As, dig IO), and low power.
I am a 20+ year software engineer specializing in both embedded and PC software, so the programming aspects of this don't scare me too much. I have rudimentary electronics skills, but more importantly have access to electrical engineers. I also spent about 4 years back in the late 80s as an intern writing embedded software for commercial energy management controllers. We didn't use any wireless stuff back then, but the measurement and control concepts are essentially the same (temperature sensors, relays, load schedules, overrides, etc.).
I would also want to monitor some other things in the house, such as well-pump activity, off-peak electricity availability, garage door status, etc.
I welcome any discussion/feedback/advice on any of this!
I stumbled across this site yesterday, so I quickly registered, and here I am!
I am about to embark on an ambitious HVAC monitoring and control application for my recently acquired 30 year-old home up here in frigid Minnesota. I have some very unique requirements (IMO) and would love to discuss them with anyone who is interested. Some of the key aspects are:
Three different heating systems:
1) Off-Peak Electric (mostly Radiant ceiling panels, wall-mounted space heaters in basement), 15 thermostats
2) Off-Peak Electric Heat Pump (efficient above 30 deg F outside temp), 1 thermostat
3) Backup Propane Forced Air Furnace (using same air ducts as heat pump), 1 thermostat
So there are lots of items to monitor and control!
My house is COMPLETELY finished with sheetrock in EVERY room. In addition, every interior wall I have poked into is insulated, so fishing CAT5 wires to each room is essentially out-of-the-question. Thus I am strongly considering building a Wireless Sensor/Control Network using board-level modules (integrated radio, CPU, IO) from companies like Jennic (www.jennic.com). These seem relatively cheap ($20 us), capable (32 bit CPU, A/Ds, D/As, dig IO), and low power.
I am a 20+ year software engineer specializing in both embedded and PC software, so the programming aspects of this don't scare me too much. I have rudimentary electronics skills, but more importantly have access to electrical engineers. I also spent about 4 years back in the late 80s as an intern writing embedded software for commercial energy management controllers. We didn't use any wireless stuff back then, but the measurement and control concepts are essentially the same (temperature sensors, relays, load schedules, overrides, etc.).
I would also want to monitor some other things in the house, such as well-pump activity, off-peak electricity availability, garage door status, etc.
I welcome any discussion/feedback/advice on any of this!
Maybe start a blog(see blog settings in your control panel) here and keep us up to date with this project.