Home build datalogger

[alankelly]

Hi

Hope all are well

Does anybody know please the easiest way of collecting performance data for my installed solar thermal system.

I guess you need to measure both the flow / return temperatures for the store and know the flow rate of your fluid, and then you can then calculate the heat quantity transferred to the heat store.

My Resol controller has been fitted with the 4th sensor and is configured  for heat quantity measurement. but as I know have the "solar itch" after have both PV and solar thermal installed this year, for my next project I would like to try and build if possible a simple and cheap data logging system from scratch

My knowledge of electronics  is limited but enthusiasm is high and it is only a project for me to see if I could do this idea from scratch and maybe learn a thing or two!

Does anybody think the above is feasible or is it just not worth it

Any ideas  or websites I should view welcome

Happy Xmas and a great new year 

Al.

[wookey]

This has been discussed many times. The best way is to fit 1-wire sensors and log the output on one of any number of small computers. Search the forum for '1-wire'.

[StBarnabas]

Use HalfBee devices, with EricW's Arduino 1-wire master (or an upgraded one with a display). KenB was developing a very nice ATMEL based Arduino like PCB with extra features which he demonstrated the last time he was in Newcastle (well showed the PCB design on the Computer) sadly I have not heard any more recently.
Sean

[ericw]

Al,
As Sean has suggested you could use the simple datalogger decribed in posts in this section of the Forum in its present form, to log the raw data. You could then do the calculations on the CSV data in Excel, if you didn't need a real time result.
If you want a result in near real time you can easily modify the code to additionally do the calculations and display/log it.

If you want a 'real' database then unix based solutions using OWFS have been described but they do require a deeper knowledge of programming.
Trawling through this (and the Home automation) section of the Forum should provide a mine of information for you.

There have been posts about suitable flow sensors in the past.
There have also been posts discussing the likely accuracy of measuring the energy being collected - its nothing like as easy as PV.

[alankelly]

Hi

Thanks for all the replies and advice

I will / just started to investigate this 1 wire system

(just been on the "hobby boards" website)

Keep you posted

Merry Xmas Al.

[skyewright]

(just been on the "hobby boards" website)

You might also like to check out
http://www.sheepwalkelectronics.co.uk/
Hobby Boards have a much more comprehensive a selection of sensors, etc. but for the bits they can provide Sheepwalk have the advantage of being here in the UK, so postage is cheaper & quicker.