Hey Ed,
Thanks for the detailed description on the profiling of power etc.
Unfortunately all of our devices are semi smart i.e. you set them and have to push a button to get them to start - cant just cut the power - but they are not smart enough to have an API !! Luckily both my wife and i work from home - so it is fairly easy to send out emails to us both to say it is time to put on the load of washing, turn on the dryer etc.
The biggest struggle i have at the moment is how to visualise the profile of useage and then fit that into an available pool of energy
So lets say i have a pool of solar that is forecast to ramp up from 4KW at 9AM through to 9KW at 11AM and stay at that through to 2PM, when it starts to taper off from 9KW down to 0 by 4:30PM
(this is winter)
So i have my heatpump which is a constant 2.5KW load (when on low) so then i need to work out how to optimize each of the other devices so their power draws work in best.
I know that during the week (for instance) when we do a load of washing it takes very close to 65 minutes, the same with the clothes dryer it takes approximately 80 minutes etc etc.
I am trying to wrap my head around the best way to overlay all of these loads at the start of the day based on the solar forecast and some convoluted logic
For example we have the following loads which must run each day (i am only considering Winter here at the moment as we have heaps of excess solar for everything in summer)
So heatpump - essentially on low a flat draw of 2.5Kw (can be put into turbo mode and then uses 4.5Kw - but ignore that for the moment) Take that as a base load that runs all day between 9AM and 4PM
Poolpump - draws 1.2Kw - needs to run for 2 hours each day but can be started and stopped or even cancelled altogether with no side effects.
Dishwasher - needs to run each day - takes 3 hours with a variable power draw - but pretty low for most of the time until it gets to the last hour of the cycle
Washing Machine - needs to run 3 times per week (during the week) and has an overall low energy draw for most of the time and takes 65 minutes to run
Dryer - needs to run 3 times per week (but only after the washing machine!) and has a high sustained power draw of 2KW for most of the 80m cycle.
I guess the best way would be to slice these into (say) 5 min intervals and then map them and see what could be overlaid with what within the power pool.
What would be a good way to handle that in NodeRed and to then visualise it to enable programming decisions to be made ??
Indeed longer term you would then want a model to run when you brought a new appliance into the house to enable it to drop into this management system to enable it to be sequenced.
Have you tried to tackle this level of automation yet ??
Craig
