Automation is of great help to control the water flow for the plants, house, and laundry. Water in a closed house can cause damages when a pipe burst.  It is important to irrigate the plants according to season schedules, keep flushing the toilets and sinks frequently to avoid bad odors caused by dry syphons.

In this section we explain how the home automation system may be used for water management.  The water flow can be monitored using impulse water meter, impulse sensors, and a Color Touch Screen to display the water usage.  The water flow is controlled by solenoid and motorized valves.  Solonoid valves are energized when the water is flowing, therefore, they are used for short flow durations.  Motorized valves are energized to change their status between open and close.

The iirigation system is divided into two zones: garden(57) and serra (59). The garden is enable or disable by the rain sensors.  The serra is  also used to irrigate inside the WC inside the house to avoid the syphons to dry.  Automations in the MH200N turns ON the irrigation motorized valves during the time the solenoid valves are ON.

Rains Sensors.  There is a rain sensor (on-lin) that disable the activation of the garden electrovalves when the rain sensor switch is opened. There is also an additional sensor that can be monitored to find out if there is rain.

It is interesting to analyze the hourly water usage, it shows clearly the hours the people is asleep because the bathroom is the a must stop place before going to bed and after getting up from bed.  The quantity of water usage is part of the wellbeing monitoring research to identify activities as waking up in the middle of the night, water spent to shower, …

Control

There is a schedule for irrigation of the garden in the Terrace, the plants in the Winter House, and the WC in the home when it is closed. The irrigation schedules are managed by the Mac Mini as events in the Calendar application part of OS X. There are two pulse counters that monitor the water flow in the home and in the garden, as a measurement of people activity in the home.


Deviator

photo

The solarincal is a deviator and a thermostatic mixer.  The deviator sends the input water to the gas water heater only when the water from the electric water heater is less than 45 °C. The water from the selected water heater is mixed with the cold water to achieve the wished water temperature.

Electric Water Heater


Filter

Screenshot 2014-04-01 06.48.03


Heater

The electric water heater heats the water only when the photovoltaic power is greater than consumed electricity in the home (energy management, and load control). The hot water heated by the solar panels accumulates in the insulated tank (energy saving), and it passes throught the gas water heater, using a deviator, only when its temperature is below 45 °C, or the designed hot water temperature.                            


Motorized Valve

Shower

Valves

The house water is filtered to remove particles in the water, and it is processed by a water softener to reduce the hardness.  There are two motorized electrovalves, one for the house and a second for the irrigation.   The irrigation water lines has two electrovalve for two irrigazion zones.  There scheduled automations in the MH200N to open and close the motorized valves to add reliability in case the irrigation valves or water pipes malfunction. The water flow is normally closed when the house is closed, and it opens for few minutes once a week to irrigate the syphons that avoid bad odors from the sewerage lines. 


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