The aim of this project is to detect and analyse the heat loss in an indoor space.
This application can be used to identify thermal bridges, inefficiencies, or holes in a building’s envelope.
With further development, this sensor can be integrated into smart home systems to regulate desired heat and humidity thresholds within a space by controlling ventilation with automated exhaust louvers.
List of Components
System
Schematics
Working Principles
Hardware overview
Communicatio Protocol
Software Overview
Application
Analysis of the data received
Limitations
1. Wired connection makes it hard to carry around. Future step: use wireless connection for both adding and camera.
2. CV algorithm with thermal camera works well to recognize the sky, but not the whole window hole, buildings or other elements give bias for the calculation of the area of the window -> future step: work more on CV algorithm to create more detailed range of color recognition specifically for this case study.
3. Currently not connected to the smart home, so it serves just as a research prototype -> future step: to connect it with smart home and create an automatized system to close and open windows.
4. Each indoor space has different range of temperature so users need to adjust the code manually depending on their own space -> future step: create an algorithm that will first check the average normal temperature and humidity indoor and only after that activate the smart home system.
Future Improvements
- Program script to prompt desired temperature thresholds for the “darkest pixels” to capture contour around desired limits.
- Analyze thermal frames captured from fixed position over time to understand thermal bridges and ventilation in a controlled environment.
- Set tolerance of contour to identify precise temperatures above or below desired limits.
- Set distance of camera to surface and provide scale to identify area of temperatures within / outside desired range.
- Program camera to capture images if, and only if, the color amount of the darkest pixels within a frame exceed a defined area or deviation from room temperature.
- Analyze deviations in temperature range from thermal camera against the room temperature sensor readings.
Links
video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M0d789wuvjZ0YNkgvUoeo68rETbcr-td/view?usp=share_link
