* Solar Heater Energy Monitor
In order to monitor remotely and online, via Internet, the behavior of the solar heater an arduino project was implemented. The data are stored on m2mlight.com platform.
To measure the heater power consumption is necessary two transformers, one for the voltage and one for the current (CTR), connected to the electrical circuit to be analyzed. These transformers (or sensors) convert the initial signals of AC to analogues signals, which can be read from the Arduino circuits, and then these processed values are
sent to the cloud.This project allows to monitor solar heater tank temperature with the following link tank temperature, and the values of power consumption of the resistance backup heater with the following link heater power consumption. To do this, the Arduino circuit is coupled with the system controller TK-7Y for solar water heater, using a operational amplifier MCP601.
This project is inspired in the following link: Energy monitoring
List of materials and budget:
- Arduino Uno, $ 10.99
- Ethernet Shield W5100, $ 10.99
- Breadboard, $ 5.51
- Power adapter, $ 7.49
- MCP601 Operational amplifier, $ 5.07
- 1 x Current transformer, $ 7.28
- 5 x 10K Ohm resistor, $ 0.25
- 1 x 100K Ohm resistor, $ 0.18
- 3 x 10uF capacitor, $ 0.18
- Some jumper wires, $ 1.30
- 120V/9V AC-AC Voltage transformer, $ 9.00 (local market)
- Homemade wooden case, $ 4.00 (Estimated)
The approximate total budget is: $ 62.09
The Android Application has a screen that allows to remotely via Internet: monitor the solar heater (temperature and power), and monitor the energy generation.This is the Arduino Code for this first project.
The Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design using Fritzing (originally there was another input - I1) :
PCB built:
Complete box built:
