Sensor System for Self-Driven In-Home Climate Control (CS)

Annually, the cost of air conditioning and heating equipment rises in cost anywhere from 5% - 9%. Coupled with the growing costs of electricity and natural gas, in-house climate control can amass enormous utility bills. Effective use of the windows in one’s home can help, but knowing how best to use the windows in your home is a non-trivial problem. We propose a project in which students are tasked with developing the hardware and software solutions to allow homeowners to make optimal use of their windows.

Objectives

Build 3+ simple temperature/humidity-monitoring modules using off-the-shelf components.  These will be the raw data sources for the project.

Implement a database to store raw sensor data.

Create a website and/or mobile application that:

  • Allows user to pair/unpair sensor modules
  • Notifies user when to open or close windows based on the indoor vs outdoor heat index (temperature + humidity)
  • Allows user to create simple floorplan of their home and specify where windows / sensors are located, the home’s location (coordinates) and cardinality of layout (which way is north) to notify user when to open/close blinds based on weather forecast and position of the sun
  • Allows user to create statistical model to correlate between local weather forecast (obtain via API) and indoor/outdoor temperature sensor readings
  • Allows user to visualize data series  (from indoor/outdoor sensors, weather forecast)

Motivations

Annually, the cost of air conditioning and heating equipment rises in cost anywhere from 5% - 9%. Coupled with the growing costs of electricity and natural gas, in-house climate control can amass enormous utility bills. There is no doubt that an air-conditioner is the quickest way to beat the heat, but because that isn’t always an accessible option, we look to optimize the usage of windows in one's home as a means of assistance.

Students on this project are to create a modular IOT solution, consisting of 2 or more pairs of devices, that can make window opening or closing recommendations in order to control the climate of a house. The recommendations will be based on data taken of outdoor and indoor environmental conditions. Time of day and orientation of the house will also be accounted for. By cooling a house through the use of temperature differentials, the environmental impact and electrical cost of AC units can be mitigated. 

This is an exciting problem to work on, with no clear cut answers on what determines the best way to use windows in one’s home. Students will need to collaborate to come up with creative solutions. We are excited for what you come with and hope you learn a lot from this experience!

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

There are no minimum qualifications for this project.

Preferred Qualifications:

We ask that you are enthusiastic, diligent and eager to learn. This project is suited for students interested in sensors, IoT, web/mobile development, data science, and modeling.


Details

Project Partner:

Faaiq Waqar

NDA/IPA:

No Agreement Required

Number Groups:

1

Project Status:

Accepting Applicants

Keywords:
Mobile DevelopmentIoTdata scienceweb developmentModelingSensorsWireless CommunicationSmart Home
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