67 % Gas Reduction for Warm Water with a Chat Bot

Description

As you may have noticed. Gas prices in Europe are going nuts in 2022 due to War in Ukraine.
In our Apartment we talked with our neighbours how we can reduce our Gas usage. One reason war Gas prices the other was: How can we reduce the gas usage for becoming more eco friendly. During summer time we noticed that certain wall parts of our apartments were warmer than other spots. The reason was the warm water pipe of the central gas heating was running behind that spots. After some couple of beers we discoverd: How can we reduce this kind of useless energy in summertime. This warm water lines are just warming up our appartment in summertime.
To make the story short: The reason for this hot water lines was a circulating water pump that was constantly pushing warm water in a circle line. This water line was not isolated and therefore heating up our walls.

Details

Some years ago I stumbled over Telgram Bots

This is a simple chat bot that can be controlled via you Mobilephone.

On the other side a Microcontroller e.g. an ESP8266/Arduino/ESP32 receives this commands and can interact with you. This might be used for basic Smart home tasks. After I got my last GAS bill we talked in our House what we can do to change the cost of living. So we decided to check our heating system. While doing that we figured out that there is a waterpump conctantly pumping hot water in a circle. This water lines where not isolted and heated up the whole house and the walls in summertime.

This waterpump was pulling this water out of our central heating system water storage. While pumping this hot water in a circle in our house the water cools down.... Therefore it must be reheated once it is back in the heating system.

Why is this done:

This is done purly out of comfort. So whenever you open up the tap the water is immediately warm and you do not have to wait 30 sec

Sooo we decided to do something to cool our walls and reduce our gas bill.

An idea was born to operate this waterpump only when really needed. e.,g. for showering. And what is better than controlling this with a Telegram Bot with your mobile.

Files

VID20220904192849.mp4

Heizibot in action

MPEG-4 Video - 6.87 MB - 09/04/2022 at 17:45

Download

Components

Project Logs

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Savings in English
Ulrich • 09/05/2022 at 18:45 • 0 comments

I noticed the saving calculation was only availible in German.

Here the same graphs in English:
How Much does it save in Gas, Energy, CO²
Ulrich • 09/01/2022 at 20:11 • 0 comments

We did a measurement on consumption before, while and after Installation of certain methods.
You may see here three columns:
1. Before instalation with the warm water pump 24/7 (original configuration)
2. After installation of a simple Timer (40% Reduction)
3. After installation of a Chat Bot (67% Reduction)
Developing Software for The SonOFF Switch
Ulrich • 09/01/2022 at 20:07 • 0 comments

I programmed a very simple Software in Arduino with a Telegram Bot.
Each user in our appartment can switch on the warmwater whenever he/she needs warm water. This may be needed for showering, washing dishes,....
This Switching on is done with your personal mobile and the Chat App Telegram Chat App
You may have a look how this Chat app looks here.
The User can select with short cut buttons how long the waterpump is running and when it is switched off automatically.
You May find the complete SW here:
https://github.com/Uspizig/Heiziabot/tree/main/Software
The Hardware
Ulrich • 09/01/2022 at 20:02 • 0 comments

To enable the Warmwater circulation a simple Sonoff Switch is used.
This Wifi Switches can be programmed with Arduino IDE very simply
You may find this cheap on ebay, aliexpress, Amazon
This Hardware is ideal fo a small and reliable Switch to control our currently 24/7 running warmwater circulation pump