Classifications

• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F24—HEATING; RANGES; VENTILATING
  • F24D—DOMESTIC- OR SPACE-HEATING SYSTEMS, e.g. CENTRAL HEATING SYSTEMS; DOMESTIC HOT-WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS; ELEMENTS OR COMPONENTS THEREFOR
  • F24D19/00—Details
  • F24D19/10—Arrangement or mounting of control or safety devices
  • F24D19/1006—Arrangement or mounting of control or safety devices for water heating systems
  • F24D19/1009—Arrangement or mounting of control or safety devices for water heating systems for central heating
  • F24D19/1048—Counting of energy consumption
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01K—MEASURING TEMPERATURE; MEASURING QUANTITY OF HEAT; THERMALLY-SENSITIVE ELEMENTS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G01K17/00—Measuring quantity of heat
  • G01K17/06—Measuring quantity of heat conveyed by flowing media, e.g. in heating systems e.g. the quantity of heat in a transporting medium, delivered to or consumed in an expenditure device
  • G01K17/08—Measuring quantity of heat conveyed by flowing media, e.g. in heating systems e.g. the quantity of heat in a transporting medium, delivered to or consumed in an expenditure device based upon measurement of temperature difference or of a temperature
  • G01K17/10—Measuring quantity of heat conveyed by flowing media, e.g. in heating systems e.g. the quantity of heat in a transporting medium, delivered to or consumed in an expenditure device based upon measurement of temperature difference or of a temperature between an inlet and an outlet point, combined with measurement of rate of flow of the medium if such, by integration during a certain time-interval
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F24—HEATING; RANGES; VENTILATING
  • F24D—DOMESTIC- OR SPACE-HEATING SYSTEMS, e.g. CENTRAL HEATING SYSTEMS; DOMESTIC HOT-WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS; ELEMENTS OR COMPONENTS THEREFOR
  • F24D19/00—Details
  • F24D19/10—Arrangement or mounting of control or safety devices
  • F24D19/1006—Arrangement or mounting of control or safety devices for water heating systems
  • F24D19/1051—Arrangement or mounting of control or safety devices for water heating systems for domestic hot water
  • F24D19/1063—Arrangement or mounting of control or safety devices for water heating systems for domestic hot water counting of energy consumption
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F24—HEATING; RANGES; VENTILATING
  • F24D—DOMESTIC- OR SPACE-HEATING SYSTEMS, e.g. CENTRAL HEATING SYSTEMS; DOMESTIC HOT-WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS; ELEMENTS OR COMPONENTS THEREFOR
  • F24D19/00—Details
  • F24D19/10—Arrangement or mounting of control or safety devices
  • F24D19/1006—Arrangement or mounting of control or safety devices for water heating systems
  • F24D19/1066—Arrangement or mounting of control or safety devices for water heating systems for the combination of central heating and domestic hot water
  • F24D19/1081—Arrangement or mounting of control or safety devices for water heating systems for the combination of central heating and domestic hot water counting of energy consumption

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a device for measuring a quantity related to energy consumption, especially but not exclusively for use in a plant for individual measurement of a quantity related to consumption of energy of a certain type by tenants in a house having several tenants, which is the reason for now describing such a device so as to illuminate but not in any way restrict the invention.
• Terant is used in this disclosure as a name for a separate unit of a house and may be a dwelling, an office premise or any other type of premises.
• a system for a central supply of cold and warm water to the differ- ent tenants is normally installed in houses having several tenants. It is a problem for the house owner that it is expensive to determine the consumption of cold and hot water by the individual tenants, in which the consumption of hot water is of particular interest in regions where considerable energy is needed for heating the water.
• a tenant may in the case of a dwelling house be one single person staying in another city during several months, while another tenant/dwelling may house a family with several teenagers. A water fee included in the rent and not considering this will then be unfair and false for the tenants caring about the environment and desiring to reduce the rent costs or for another reason consume a small amount of hot water.
• the object of the present invention is to provide a device making it possible to solve said problem in a smooth way.
• thermo-electric generator with two electrodes, a first of which being designed to be arranged on an outer surface of a hollow body inside which a medium is intended to flow and by that change the temperature of the wall of the body and by that of said surface in dependence upon said energy consumption, and a second electrode of which being designed to be applied against a surface or medium separated from said hollow body, and said generator is configured to generate electric energy as a consequence of a temperature difference between said electrodes created by flowing of medium in- side said hollow body and to feed this energy to and by that driving a unit included in said device and adapted to indicate a measure of said energy consumption.
• Such a device may be used for measuring a quantity related to energy consumption, such as consumption of hot water, cooling medium or the like, in applications where a battery supply of a said unit is not acceptable for different reasons, such as since it is difficult to carry out battery replacement, and where accordingly a continuous voltage supply is normally required but deli- cate to realize. Battery operation is from an environment point of view neither desired.
• the device according to the invention may "sleep" during long times but when medium flows in said hollow body, usually a pipe, and a said temperature difference is created nevertheless reliably feed energy to the unit which then indicates a measure of the energy consumption in question.
• thermo-electric generator for measuring said energy consumption and generation and feeding of energy to the unit
• the arrangement of this will be easy, since no parts have to be built-in into any hollow body, such as any pipe, for measuring the flow of the medium in ques- tion in said body.
• said device com- prises means designed to make the magnitude of the feeding of said electric energy to the unit dependent upon the magnitude of said temperature difference, and the unit is designed to register the time it is fed by energy from said generator as a consequence of that said temperature difference exceeds a threshold value of at least 2°C and indicate this time as a said measure of said energy consumption.
• a threshold value of at least 2°C An accurate value of the energy consumption related to flowing of said medium inside said body may by this very easily be obtained, since by determining the threshold value to be at least 2°C it is avoided that small temperature differences which may be related to others than a flow of medium inside said hollow body are registered as would such a medium flow really take place.
• the device comprises a member designed to deliver a measure of said temperature difference to said unit, and the unit is designed to weight periods of said time in dependence of how much the temperature difference exceeds said threshold during these periods when indicating said energy consumption when creating said measure.
• a member may be a temperature sensor, but also a member measuring the voltage generated across the electrodes of the thermo-electric generator.
• the unit comprises a display designed to display said measure of energy consumed and/or cost for energy consumed .
• a display designed to display said measure of energy consumed and/or cost for energy consumed .
• the unit may then have a transmitter as well as a receiver which may receive a current energy price, such as price per Kwh , from a transmitter located remotely.
• the unit comprises a transmitter designed to send information about said measure to an apparatus designed to process the information.
• a suitable process of the information is by that possible for for instance delivery of data to be compared with corresponding information received from units of other such devices.
• the apparatus comprises then advantageously means designed to provide a web hotel with information relating to said energy consumption and by that enable reading of this through connection to the Internet.
• Each of the tenants in a house having several tenants may by this for example easily read the energy consumption of a certain type whenever this is desired, such as for example the consumption of hot water, and possibly also the cost for this.
• This information may possibly also be sent to the respective tenant through a router and be shown on a display on for in- stance a refrigerator.
• the information may besides consumption and cost also comprise statistic and other information involving an incitement to waste less.
• the device comprises members designed to be arranged on said body for measuring the flow of said medium through the body, and the generator is configured to attend to the energy supply also to these members.
• thermoelectric generator is desig ned to be arranged with said first electrode on a hollow body inside which a medium is intended to flow while heating the hollow body
• thermo-electric generator is designed to be arranged with said first electrode on a hollow body inside which a medium is intended to flow while cooling the hollow body
• thermoelectric generator is designed to be applied with said first electrode on a hollow body inside which a medium in the form of hot water is intended to flow.
• the second electrode of the thermo-electric generator is designed to be applied to air.
• the first electrode on a hot water-pipe or conduit when a cold water-pipe runs close thereto it would mostly be most suitable to arrange the second electrode on the cold water-pipe, but in cases where such a possibility does not exist the device according to the invention may nevertheless be reliably used by application of the second electrode to air, then preferably through fins, such as cooling fins.
• said thermoelectric generator is designed to be built-in into a mixer of cold water and hot water with one of the electrodes designed to bear externally against the cold water-pipe and the other externally against the hot water-pipe.
• the device according to the invention does not require any connection to any energy supply unit and neither has any battery to be replaceable it will be possible to incorporate it in a conventional mixer, such as for a sanitary space, for example a shower space. A reliable meas- ure of the energy consumption associated with flowing of water through the mixer may by this be obtained.
• said first electrode of the thermo-electric generator is designed to be ap- plied onto an external surface of a hollow body in the form of a radiator for heating.
• Devices according to the invention may in this way be used for delivering a measure of the energy consumption taking place for heating a certain place.
• the invention also relates to a plant for individual measurement of a quantity related to consumption of energy of a certain type by tenants in a house having several tenants, which is designed to have at least one device according to any of the preceding claims arranged for each tenant. Consumption of energy of a certain type, such as related to hot water, by an individual tenant may by simple means by this be measured with an accuracy required. For example may in the case of devices with thermoelectric generators built-in into a said mixer that many devices be arranged per tenant so that the accuracy aimed at is obtained.
• the plant comprises means designed to measure a quantity relating to the total consumption of energy of a certain type for the entire house and send information thereabout to an apparatus included in the plant, the units of the devices are designed to send infor- mation about said measure of energy consumption to the apparatus, and the apparatus is designed to process said information from the units so as to for each individual tenant deliver the proportion of the energy consumption reported by the units thereof with respect to the total energy consumption reported by the units of the house and calculate the consumption of energy of said certain type by said tenant while assuming that this proportion is valid for said total consumption of energy of said type.
• the costs for the entire house for the consumption of energy of a certain type such as energy relating to consumption of hot water, may by this be fairly distributed to the different tenants.
• the plant is designed for measuring energy consumption relating to consumption of hot water by the tenants and has for each tenant one or several devices with a thermo-electric generator built-in into a mixer or associated with mixers of cold and hot water, such as for shower and bath, judged to be involved in the main part of the consumption of hot water by the respective tenant.
• a strategic arrangement of such devices an acceptably fair picture of the proportion of the consumption of hot water by the respective tenant to that of the entire house may be obtained.
• the invention also relates to a method for individual measurement of a quantity related to consumption of energy of a certain type by tenants in a house with several tenants according to the appended independent method claim. The advantages of such a method appear as clearly as desired from the discussion above of a plant according to the invention.
• the invention also relates to a mixer of hot and cold water according to the appended independent claim.
• the function of such a mixer and the advantages thereof appear from the above discussion of the device according to the invention. Further advantages as well as advantageous features of the in vention appear from the following description.
• Fig 1 is a simplified view illustrating a possible embodiment of a plant according to the invention for individual measuring of consumption of hot water by tenants in a house with several tenants, is a simplified view illustrating a device according to an embodiment of the invention, is a simplified view of a mixer of cold and hot water provided with a device according to the invention, is a view illustrating how a device according to the invention may be used for measuring energy consumed for heating a space, and
• Fig 5 is a simplified view illustrating a device according to an embodiment of the invention applied on a shower mixer.
• a house 1 in the form of a dwelling house having several ten- ants is illustrated in Fig 1 .
• Cold water is delivered to the house through a cold water conduit 2, and the consumption of water by the entire house is measured through a cold water flow meter 3.
• the main water conduit 2 is branched downstream the meter 3 for hot water preparation through a hot water meter 4, from which a hot water conduit 5 runs through a meter 6 for the total hot water consumption of the house into the house, as well as a cold water conduit 7.
• the two meters 3 and 6 are designed to send the measurement results thereof to an apparatus 8 schematically indicated and configured to process this information.
• Each tenant/dwelling is provided with at least one device 9 for measuring a quantity related to the consumption of hot water by the tenant so as to determine how great part of the total consumption of hot water of the house emanates from the respective tenant. It is very schematically illustrated how such a device is arranged between the hot and cold water conduits arriving to the respective dwelling. This is shown for exemplifying the arrangement of devices according to the invention in a plant according to the invention, but such devices may instead be associated with mixers of cold and hot water judged to be involved in the main part of the consumption of hot water of the respective tenant. It may then possibly be enough to have such a device arranged in connection with a shower or a bath in each dwelling, or to supplement such an arrangement with a device at a kitchen desk mixer.
• the device has a thermo-electric generator 10 with two electrodes, a first 1 1 of which being designed to be arranged on an outer surface of a hollow body 12a, here a water-pipe, inside which a medium, here hot water, is intended to flow and by that change the temperature of the wall of the body and by that said surface in dependence of the consumption of energy through hot water consumption.
• a second electrode 13 is designed to be applied to a surface or medium, here a cold water-pipe 12b, separated from the hollow body 12a.
• the electrodes are here metal bodies 50, 51 , for instance of Al or Cu, which bear against said surface by surrounding the hot water-pipe 12a and the cold water-pipe 12b, respectively, and by that get a temperature influenced by the flow in these pipes.
• the two bodies 50, 51 are biased against each other through a screw connection 52 having two ceramic plates 53, 54 located therebetween and separated by heat conducting rods 55 (another possibility to press the plates towards the rods also exists).
• the plates 53, 54 have typically a dimension of 30 x 30 mm and the rods 55 a length of 3 mm. Heat may in this way be led in the rods in the direction from the hotter body 50 towards the colder body.
• the generator 10 is designed to generate electric en- ergy as a consequence of a temperature difference between the two electrodes created by flow of hot water in the pipe 12a, and to feed this energy to and by that drive the unit 14 adapted to indicate a measure of said energy consumption. It is shown how the unit 14 may have a transmitter 15 designed to send informa- tion about said measure to an apparatus, here the apparatus 8, designed to process the information. This transmitting may then take place through a number of radio communicating routers 16 (see Fig 1 ), for example located in the stairwell of the house 1 .
• the device comprises means 17 schematically indicated in Fig 2 and designed to make the magnitude of the feeding of the electric energy to the unit dependent upon the magnitude of temperature differences between the two electrodes, and the unit 14 is designed to register the time it is fed with energy from the generator as a consequence of that the temperature difference exceeds a threshold value, which may be realized by determining that this threshold value is typically exceeded if the temperature of the hot water conduit 12a exceeds +30°C. Accordingly, it is hot water consumption measures in the form of time information which is sent through the transmitter 15 and the router 16 to the apparatus 8.
• the device may have members 18 designed to be arranged on the body, here the hot water-pipe, for measuring the flow of hot water through the pipe, in which the generator is designed to take care of energy supply also to these members.
• the generator is designed to take care of energy supply also to these members.
• the plant according to the invention operates as follows: the meter 6 measures the total consumption of hot water by the house and sends information thereabout to the apparatus 8.
• the units of said devices are simultaneously through the transmitters 15 and the routers 16 sending information about the hot water consumption by the respective tenant in the form of said times.
• the apparatus 8 is designed to process the information from the unit so as to for each individual tenant deliver the proportion of the hot water consumption reported by the units thereof to the total hot water consumptions reported by the units of the house and calculate the consumption of hot water by the tenant while assuming that this proportion is valid for the total consumption of hot water.
• the apparatus 8 has for this sake advantageously means 19 designed to provide a web hotel with information relating to the hot water consumption of each individual tenant for storing this information in a database and enable for each tenant to read its hot water consumption through connection to the Internet through authority and password protection.
• a mixer 20 of hot and cold water is shown in Fig 3 and this has a general construction of conventional type such for a shower, with a mixing chamber 21 , two inlet pipes 22, 23 for hot and cold water, respectively, opening therein and an outlet pipe 24 for mixed water therefrom.
• the mixer has a thermo-electric generator with two electrodes here formed by the ceramic plates of the Peltier-element 60 forming the generator. A first 25 of the plates is arranged in direct contact with the hot water and a second 26 is arranged in direct contact with the cold water.
• the generator is designed to generate electric energy as a consequence of a temperature difference between the two electrodes (plates) created by flow of water in the hot water pipe and feed this energy to and by that drive a unit 27 schematically indicated and designed to indicate a measure of the consumption of energy as a consequence of hot water passed through the mixer.
• the device has also a transmitter 28 of the type described further above for sending information to an apparatus designed to process this.
• a way to increase the accuracy may be obtained by measuring the amount of energy which the generator may deliver, which is a measure of the temperature difference. If the temperature of the hot water (for instance the ceramic plate 25) is then meas- ured the temperature of the cold water may be calculated (or conversely if the temperature of the cold water is measured). It is illustrated that the mixer is also provided with a member 29 in the form of a temperature sensor designed to deliver a measure of the real temperature of the mixed water (hot water) to the unit 27. The mixing relation between hot and cold water in the faucet may when tapping be estimated rather well if the measurement is carried out at several locations according to above. The unit 27 is in its turn designed to weight periods of said time in dependence of temperature differences and/or one or several temperatures when indicating the consumption of hot water when delivering said measure.
• thermoelectric generator with unit and antenna may have a typical dimension of 30x50x5 mm.
• Fig 4 illustrates a device according to another embodiment of the invention, which is designed for measuring energy consumed for heating through a radiator 30 and the thermo-electric generator of which has its first electrode 31 (ceramic plate) arranged on a surface of the radiator and a second electrode 32 (ceramic plate) applied to air through cooling fins 35.
• the unit 33 and transmitter 34 of this device are schematically indicated.
• Such a device is advantageously supplemented by a room temperature sensor.
• a device according to another embodiment of the invention is illustrated in Fig 5, which in principle corresponds to the one shown in Fig 3, but instead of the transmitter or as a supplement thereto a display 40 has been connected to the unit not shown and is designed to display a measure of the energy/hot water consumed as of a predetermined point of time, as from the time showering has started through opening a faucet or a flow measuring for this, here in the form of the cost for hot water.
• This point of time may for instance also be determined by arranging a water pressure detector in the faucet of the mixer, which may then also ensure that "the time is temporarily stopped" when the faucet is temporarily closed during shower- ing, such as when the showering person is soaping itself.
• the unit may have a receiver designed to receive information from a router 16 about the current energy price.
• Light emitting diodes 41 are successively illuminated from left to the right so as to further illustrate to which degree the showering person consumes energy. It would also be conceivable that the unit is designed to deliver a sound signal when a certain "pain limit energy level" is reached, for instance 1 kWh.
• the consumption being interesting is the consumption of a cooling medium, and that in such a case the first electrode is arranged on a hollow body in which such a cooling medium flows.
• thermo-electric generator with two electrodes is to be interpreted as a generator on one hand having at least two bodies which may get different temperatures by entering in contact with media with different temperatures, and on the other enables a heat transport as a consequence of this temperature difference and transfer of this heat transport to electric energy (Seebeck effect).
• the bodies forming the electrodes may comprise contact blocks around for example a water conduit pipe as well as a plate pressed in contact therewith, such as a ceramic plate, as shown in Fig 2, or as in the em- bodiment in Fig 4 only one such ceramic plate or even be formed only by the very wall of a hollow body, such as a pipe or a chamber.
• thermo-electric generator DC/DC-converter
• microprocessor transmitter, receiver and temperature sensor

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Thermal Sciences (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Measuring Volume Flow (AREA)
• Domestic Hot-Water Supply Systems And Details Of Heating Systems (AREA)

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Cited By (5)

Citations (7)

• 2010
  • 2010-06-03 SE SE1050561A patent/SE1050561A1/sv not_active Application Discontinuation
• 2011
  • 2011-05-30 WO PCT/SE2011/050671 patent/WO2011152784A1/en active Application Filing

Patent Citations (7)

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