Automation TA
This is a "phase 2" type project but never-the-less, fun to think about.
After the basic structure is in place and we are moved in I would like to begin automating systems. They are primarily broken down into
- Climate
- Garden
- Energy
- Security
- Monitoring and Access
=Climate
Climate is the attempt primarily to regulate the temperature and secondarily the humidity. The system that I am interested in could be described as 'leveraged' being neither active nor passive. System that can be manipulated are:
- Skylights
- Windows
- Shades
- Solar chimney
Garden
Monitoring
Soil moisture will be monitored and recorded. I may also want some automation to photograph the garden.
Watering
The data collected from soil moisture will be used to determine watering.
Frost Protection
The system will protect the plants and itself from cold weather. When The temperature drops down below ~33F the garden will be 'misted' to protect the crops from frost. If the temperature drops below 32 for an extended period of time, the system will pump all of the water out.
Energy
Monitoring as well as automation in lights and appliances.
Batteries
The batteries I want to use are liquid lead acid batteries, they need a lot of love to run efficiently. The batteries can be thought of as a two dimensional array, one dimension forms a stack to set the voltage - probably 4 6V batteries in a stack to form 24V. The other dimension creates an array of serviceable stacks. We need monitoring to check the health and the water level of each individual battery. Then there needs to be automation for moving batteries from charging to servicing.
Solar Panels
We need voltage and current monitoring for each panel.
Central Power
We will need to monitor DC and AC separately.
Security
Doors will lock automatically. People will be given individual QR codes for access and they will be logged.
Monitoring and Access
All the systems above will log their data at a central location. This will be viewable online. We will have the ability to control certain aspects online as well such as locking doors and doing a hard cut off of water, gas and electricity.