Urwa Irfan

School: Illinois Institute of Technology

Major: Engineering

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-ggwj-9x73

Urwa Irfan is a sophomore majoring in architectural engineering working with IIT's Built Environment Research Group under Dr. Brent Stephens. She hopes to pursue a career in energy-efficient building design.

Radiator Energy Modelling with Wireless Open-Source Sensors

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to develop an efficient, economical method of determining the energy consumption of the steam radiators in Alumni Memorial Hall. Custom printed circuit boards (PCBs) were designed and assembled to act as sensors for measuring the air temperature of rooms and the surface temperature of radiators. These sensors were installed in faculty offices in Alumni Hall, with the air temperature sensors mounted on the wall and the surface temperature sensors on the steam inlet and condensate outlet pipes of each radiator. These sensors are designed to transmit data wirelessly to a host computer. Using data from the sensors as well as the dimensions of the radiator unit, the heat flux output from the radiator can be estimated. These results when compared with measurements from actual heat flux sensors mounted on the radiator show that the modelled data is reasonably accurate (correlation with R2 > 0.9). With some fine-tuning, the model can replace expensive heat flux sensors in evaluating radiator energy usage. This type of setup can be used to provide estimations of thermal comfort, along with better control of radiator operation in order to save energy utilization and costs.