Date of Award
6-7-2016
Document Type
Thesis
Publisher
Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2016.
Department
Mechanical Engineering
First Advisor
Hohyun Lee
Abstract
Existing gas or electric water heaters can become inefficient through the overheating of water and through parasitic heat loss. These inefficiencies are able to be solved by monitoring when a home uses hot water. AquAdapt is a smart sensor which is capable of attaching to any existing residential gas or electric water heater. By constantly monitoring the temperature change of a home water heater, the first law of thermodynamics can be used to relate temperature change to the amount of hot water leaving the water heater. Utilizing this information, a schedule can be generated to optimize the heating of home hot water. Regulating the on-off state of a water heater based on the household’s learned usage pattern, allows AquAdapt to reduce residential water heating energy consumption by up to 33%. With a final product cost of $60, the return on investment of AquAdapt is estimated to be 8 months.
Recommended Citation
Singer, Joe; Simmons, Michael; and Jansen, Scott, "Smart Control for Home Water Heater Saving" (2016). Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses. 53.
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/mech_senior/53