Communal paradise without worries and troubles

Of course, we are still far from the communal paradise, but positive changes are still outlined. Today I will talk about how electronic heating control systems in my apartment building saved 124 thousand rubles of blood money of residents in the heating season of 2013-2014. As soon as this happened, everyone became satisfied, but at the beginning this story was practically detective.

Public load ...

I will not say about myself as about a large public activist, but it so happened that in my house (two-access 17 floors 140 apartments), I enter the house committee. In this case, in the Partnership of homeowners (HOA), I am responsible for everything related to any equipment. Our chairwoman, a lovely old woman, Svetlana Nikiforovna, does not make any decisions without consulting me when it comes to installing antennas, computer networks, video surveillance systems, transmitters of mobile operators, etc. In short everything that is either related to the technical infrastructure of the house. I still do not understand why I didn’t get a face , because in the 4 years of our house’s existence, I personally put out a dozen of all kinds of rogues outside the entrance door who offered every kind of technical murk for incredible money. System "on-off" light clapping hands (140 thousand rubles for 2 porches), installation of video cameras with blinking LEDs inside (2,000 apiece) and other similar nonsense. Do not think that in our house there is no equipment. Of course have. And automatic lighting of entrances and video surveillance of parking lots, but it all went through my harsh expertise in negotiations with firms. But everything works as it should.

Regular Walkers

The phone call of the President of the Homeowners' Association meant the appearance of another technical firm for me to eat. Met, met. A young company, although employees are no longer boys. 35-40 years old. They are engaged in industrial automation, but it became clear from the conversation that their main market is very dense and they cannot withstand the competition. We decided to explore a new direction. Automation of accounting in housing and public utilities and the installation of "smart" systems in homes. Invited to her. Turning on the technical "fool", I carefully looked at the iron.


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All controllers and systems of its own design, there is a SCAD, which is conveniently integrated into the developed system. Many approaches are skillfully borrowed from foreigners.



The guys do not use any "cloud computing" and air channels. All twisted pairs, with sensible gasket and installation. To my question “why?” The answer was lightning and convincing. All control and controlling nodes are located in basements, communication is not stable, dampness, power failures, etc. It is also cheaper. In short, the best interface wiring can not be imagined.

Becoming a little kinder, I agreed to listen to their suggestions.

And the offers were interesting!

There were two proposals. The first is to automate the reading of all-house heat meters and automate the heating units of the house to control the heating depending on weather conditions using special algorithms. In fact, we do not allow "overheating" at home. This is always true in autumn and spring, but, as it turned out later, in winter. However, it turned out after the heating season, when the appropriate conclusions were made.

After the talks, I asked to “brush over” the question and make a commercial offer. A couple of days later I received this document in the mail and went to Svetlana Nikiforovna (our Chairman of the HOA) to drink tea.

A meeting of residents is always a spectacle!

The decision of the question of such a modernization of the house required the approval of the general meeting of tenants. It was necessary to dump on the equipment on the commercial offer and to conclude an agreement for the maintenance of the system. It was here that I had to listen to any kind of scrupulous remarks and indignations of the neighbors. In short, people failed to convince. However, during the meeting, I still managed to get consent to install the equipment for testing, so to speak, for trial operation. Since it did not require the surrender of hard-earned money - the tenants agreed.

Re-visit to the company

This time I arrived with the "fool" turned off. He said that I also do different projects, incl. in IT, I have my own laboratory and work as a leading engineer in one of the Tomsk research institutes. Reported the situation and said directly - your equipment and algorithms are normal. We must enter the market with pilot houses. To do a test heating season, to form statistics and already with actual data to go to new customers. Having surpassed my authority for HOAs, I promised 50% savings (if it happened) to pay for iron and push the issue of paying the tariff for servicing metering stations (53 kopecks a month per m2 of living space in the house) to keep the system in working order . In short, the guys were sane, everyone figured it out and agreed to this option. The equipment was installed and put into operation.

Why is there heat savings? Some algorithms ...

Thermal units and meters in our house are quite modern, since the house is new - 4 years. A standard thermal regulator has been installed on the thermal node, however it is not controlled or controlled in any way. In fact, a standard control algorithm is sewn into it, and if the temperature sensors on the street are depressed, broken or not well positioned, the control algorithms are lost or distorted. The controller of the specified company takes control of the thermal regulator on itself and constantly adjusts the control algorithm of the thermal node. This takes into account the sharply continental component of the Tomsk climate. It lies in the fact that the weather is very changeable. The "bourgeois" algorithms of the fact that the temperature, for example, fell by 20 degrees C for an hour, and then rose (or dropped again) by 3 hours for 3 hours. considered as an error. As the metering stops, expenses are transferred to the general tariff (3-5 times more), and in fact just such bad weather.

Another area of ​​control and saving is the quick interception of emergency events. Imagine that hot water comes into the house for heating with a “flow” temperature of 95 grams, and comes out with a “return flow” temperature of 55 grams. The temperature behind the house (winter) -25 gr. At the entrance and exit are water meters. Since the heating system is closed, how much water has entered, so much it goes. For example, there was even a small rush or leak pipe. What's happening? The house includes 10 m3 of water per hour, and it goes 9 m3. The temperature of the "return" drops, the thermostat regards this as a cooling, begins to command the valves to raise the pressure. And in fact, an accident in the house. This is not so rare. But in our case the situation is different. The controllers of the company take readings from the water meters at the inlet and at the outlet once a minute, look at the “return” temperature and as soon as the readings of the counters start to exceed 3% of the difference between the input and output water volumes, and the “return” temperature drops unreasonably . Alert emergency services. All this happens automatically. And this is not the entire list of existing algorithms for developers. The main savings in the spring and autumn period, when it is chilly at night, but in the daytime up to 20 grams. heat The algorithms are configured to accurately handle these days and not to drown the house in vain, which already heats up under the rays of the sun.

Summing up

During the 2013-2014 heating season, our house spent absolutely comfortable. Nobody froze and sweat. Smart heating system worked steadily. 124 Gcal of heat was saved. The tariff was 1001 rubles 45 kopecks per 1 Gcal. Savings from m2 amounted to 16 rubles per year (for a 2-room apartment 960 rubles) or 11%. In fact, almost one month of the heating season was not paid by residents. All these data were presented to residents. It was decided to continue to cooperate with the specified company, to transfer payment for the maintenance of metering devices against the maintenance of the system in the future and to redeem the equipment at a residual value of 50%. The meeting was held peacefully, though the communal paradise did not come, but a step aside was made from hell).