Comments on: Real time gas monitoring

By: Edwin

Edwin — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:21:47 +0000

I think it is really cool, and not overkill, just using the equipment you have lying around. If that is a cameraphone, you use that.

By: jimmg

jimmg — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:30:54 +0000

i think is kind of overkill, too.

By: JohnZero

JohnZero — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:44:47 +0000

I think this is way way too overkill!

It could’ve been done with a microcontroller and a special light sensor (maybe with a blue filter?).

Why have a camera with a megapixel resolution when all you need is one ‘blue brightness’ value?

By: DanielW

DanielW — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:31:02 +0000

Ok, as the creator of this a few answers to overkill/accuracy.

Yes reading the meter directly would be more exact but here not posible. This is a flat in a house with 14 of them. They are 5 stories below me in a public room. It wouldn’t be a good idea to put a mobile phone there (it would be away in no time).

Also: Bluetooth wouldn’t work over 5 stories.

And it seems to be pretty accurate. Compared with the value from the meter I am only 1.3% off. (And: even those meters are allowed to have a diff of 2% by law here)

And yes: This heater is from 1991. Getting a new one is no option for me, it belongs my landloard. And I bet he will not buy me a new heater..

And don’t forget: This was fun, find out if it can be done. Nothing what I expect everyone to do.

By: supershwa

supershwa — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:42:07 +0000

Uhm, yeah I’d vote for monitoring the actual gas meter, simply because the water isn’t always the only gas powered device (furnace, stove, etc.?) unless of course the above devices are electric.

I’m with everyone else on this — definitely overkill.

By: scientist

scientist — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:51:46 +0000

Yeaaaaah…seems kinda like a bit of overkill there to me, and I am sure if Murphy didn’t say it, someone else did: the more complex you make something, the less accurate it becomes and the more prone to failure it becomes.

I would say either measure it inline before it gets to the heater, or OCR on the meter itself…this seems like a good way to get something that correlates to absolutly nothing

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:19:26 +0000

He must have a really old heater, he could probably save gas by getting a new one installed.
Modern heaters don’t burn gas at a constant rate, instead they regulate the gas flow to keep the water at a constant temperature.

I’d go for ocr on the gas meter, much more accurate.

By: MarkP

MarkP — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 06:53:11 +0000

Would monitoring the gas meter not be more sensible? I believe you can use a reed switch to measure rotations of a magnet within the meter housing.

By: unmannedanimal

unmannedanimal — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 06:31:43 +0000

@rivetgeek
it’s accurate because the gas is burned at a constant rate. the camera doesn’t analyze the properties of the burning gas, just the duration of each pulse.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 04:54:58 +0000

I hope for your sake that is not a Rinnai heater.

By: rivetgeek

rivetgeek — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 04:52:42 +0000

i cant imagine this is even remotely accurate. A better way would be to use a wind meter inline with the gas flow.

By: Winphreak

Winphreak — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 04:10:57 +0000

Almost seems like overkill, though natural gas isn’t as cheap as it once was. Nice implementation.

On a personal note, I would do something like this but my place is heated via heating oil, which doesn’t leave much choice. I get a 110-gallon tank filled twice a year, and all I have to do is keep track of how much is left around December.