I am currently running a university project in Malta, a brand new project on the island that consists of monitoring and raising awareness among the inhabitants about their hot water consumption per household.
"Using Arduino to design and program a solar thermal recorder."
Users of solar water heaters almost never have access to information on how much thermal energy their system saves. As a result, the popularity of solar water heating systems is declining in Malta. This project provides a solution by producing a low-cost thermal energy meter and/or recorder to monitor and record thermal energy savings when hot water is consumed from a solar heating system. A visual display will also be integrated to help users better appreciate this renewable energy source.
To complete this project I would need some information on the existence of an Arduino program that can record data such as flow measurements, heat flow and temperature differences.
We intend to make this project viable as soon as possible in order to carry out tests as long as there is thermal radiation on the island.
We believe that Arduino Leonardo cards may be the most suitable because there are different models and their size is advantageous for our use.
Thank you for your help, I look forward to hearing you about this subject.
Well, you can measure energy usage by devices which clip onto hot water pipes, radiators etc. It is quite common here, where there is a shared energy installation, and the usage costs have to be split among a number of users.
Example: Smart heat meters and devices | Kamstrup but you'd have to see if you could duplicate some of its core functionality with cheaply available components. Also look at Arduino data logger projects for recording results.
Clearly, the measurement devices will give an absolute energy usage. To obtain a statistic for energy savings with respect to another energy source, you'll have to do your own calculation. Some bicycle computers (which show, speed, distance etc. ) can also do something similar in that they show the amount of "fuel" saved by using the bicycle instead of motorised transport.
Mathieu92i:
I am currently running a university project in Malta, a brand new project on the island that consists of monitoring and raising awareness among the inhabitants about their hot water consumption per household.
"Using Arduino to design and program a solar thermal recorder."
[....]
To complete this project I would need some information on the existence of an Arduino program that can record data such as flow measurements, heat flow and temperature differences.
You seem to have started with the incorrect assumption that there is an existing Arduino program that can do what you want.
The purpose of the Arduino system is to make it easy for people to learn to use a microprocessor and as a convenient basis for prototyping new projects.
You need to start at the beginning.
What do you want to monitor - make a list.
For each item on the list how will you collect the data - that, is what sort of sensors do you need and how will you connect them
How often do you need to collect the measurements
What are you going to do with the collected data - is it just used to inform the owner of the device or is it to be shared with others.
Do you want to retain historical data and if so, for what period? How many bytes of data will need to be stored?