Okay, I thought maybe we would build on the last post and try to explore just what we could measure in the house after covering the various properties. A walk around the house provided many ideas…Some maybe not so easy to measure, but at least a starting point.

I listed the possibilities in various groups that made the most sense. I would also like to cover events, but that’s another post I think. After compiling this list I was struck at just how many things could possibly be measured.

Temperatures

1. Outside
2. Garage
3. Pool
4. Main Floor
5. Upper Floor
6. Basement
7. Furnace Intake
8. Furnace Plenum
9. Furnace Exhaust
10. AC Compressor Line
11. AC Evaporator
12. Ground Water
13. Water Heater Exhaust
14. Water Heater
15. Refrigerator
16. Freezer
17. Dryer Temp
18. Dishwasher

Flows

1. Furnace Air
2. Supply Water
3. Ice Maker Water
4. Water Heater
5. Dryer Air

Electrical Current

1. Main
2. Circuits
3. Dryer
4. Furnace
5. Washer
6. Dish Washer
7. Refrigerator
8. Freezer
9. Water Heater
10. Water Pump

Voltage

1. Main

Light

1. Exterior
2. Main Floor
3. Basement
4. Upper Floor
5. Garage

House Water

1. Ph
2. Conductivity

Weather

1. Wind Speed
2. Wind Direction
3. Humidity
4. Rain
5. Barometric Pressure
6. UV Radiation Level

Liquid Levels

1. Pool
2. Softener

Acoustic Levels

1. Outside
2. Garage
3. Main Floor
4. Basement
5. Upper Floor
6. Mechanical Room

Computers

1. Count
2. Disk Count
3. Disk Space
4. Disk Free Space
5. Total Memory
6. Free Memory
7. CPU Utilization
8. Number Of IP Devices

I started thinking that maybe I should cover some terms and definitions about sensing and measurement for this project before getting too deep into it.

First off, the words sensor and transducer are both widely used when referring to the measurement of physical phenomena and properties. Generally, the transducer is the component measuring the input energy or physical property, and the sensor contains the transducer as well as any circuitry required to convert the measurement into a usable electrical signal.

Here’s a small diagram of what makes up a sensor:

Let’s list out some of the different physical properties that we cold potentially measure:

1) Flow of liquids or gases
2) Levels of solid or liquid
3) Direction of flow for gases or liquids
4) Relative amount of liquid in a gas (humidity)
5) Amount of light striking a surface
6) Ph / Conductivity
7) Temperature
8) Acoustic (magnitude, spectrum)
9) Pressure / Strain / Force
10) Electrical (current, potential, and field properties)
11) Magnetic

Now I realize some of these do not seem extremely applicable to a home environment, but I would rather not limit myself just yet.

Next, we’ll list out some potential measurement possibilities around the household.

To be honest, this project will be done on a limited budget, using some existing equipment and building some of my own sensors. I have no budget for the big names in home automation (HA) and I’m mainly focused on things that aren’t your traditional HA components.

Since I’ve been a Microsoft developer for a great many years, any software used – written or not will be based primarily on MS tools.

Here are the main parts to the stated project:

1) A Graphical User Interface (GUI) – to display and allow a person to navigate through the various views of sensory data from throughout the home.

2) A Collector System (CS) – allowing various sensors and transducers report in via a push or pull process that is loosely coupled to the devices.

3) Configuration Database (CD) – that will tie Targets (items of interest such as a refrigerator, furnace, or swimming pool) to Measures (metrics like temperature, air-flow, electrical current, or humidity for example) and also allow thresholds and alarms to be tied to these combinations.

4) Event System (ES) – Will produce events based on event rules, targets, measures, and thresholds.

5) Data Warehouse (DW) – For storing measurement data for trend statistical analysis.

So, the key parts are a GUI, a Collector System, a Configuration Database, Eventing System, and Data Warehouse.

Next, I will try to formulate this into some type of project statement and a diagram of how the main components of the system.

Devoted to building on a specific area of home technology.

I’ve dug into home automation but was never satisfied with the interfaces, usability, or reliability of the systems. One thing I did notice though was the innate desire people had to understand what was already happening in their home / environment…From the mechanical systems, utilities, environmental situations both inside and out.

With an education in Electrical Engineering and a career involving transducers and sensing, micro controllers, databases, data warehousing, high-speed data acquisition, user-interface design, and web application development, I thought I would be in an excellent position to attempt a full-blown home-sensing project (I’ll give it a better name later). Maybe it will span multiple projects; I’m not sure just yet.

We’ll start next time with an initial project definition, technologies involved, and project scope definition.