See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/327561081

Temperature and Power Control of Water Geyser Using Learning Technique

Conference Paper · May 2018

DOI: 10.1109/I2CT.2018.8529715

CITATIONS READS
2 12,760

3 authors, including:

Arnab Debnath Proteeti Prova Rawshan

George Mason University Fraunhofer Institut Angewandte Systemtechnik
5 PUBLICATIONS   9 CITATIONS    7 PUBLICATIONS   11 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Proteeti Prova Rawshan on 10 September 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

2018 3rd International Conference for Convergence in Technology (I2CT)

Temperature and Power Control of Water Geyser

Using Learning Technique
Khadija Tul Kobra
Department of Computer
Science and Engineering
Military Institute of Science
and Technology
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Email: khadijatkobra@gmail.com
Arnab Debnath
Department of Computer
Science and Engineering
Military Institute of Science
and Technology
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Email: arnab.5574@gmail.com
Proteeti Prova Rawshan
Military Institute of Science
and Technology
Department of Computer
Science and Engineering
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Email: proteeti13@gmail.com

Abstract— Since water heating is a rudimentary task of our
day-to-day life, it has been turned into efficacious technology
through water geyser system. Water geyser is used for thermody-
namically heating water above its normal temperature. Its usage
incorporates in bathing, washing, cooking & many where. So to
corroborate the public demand, the key challenge is to make the
system more cheap but efficient, handy but less erroneous. To
hold its performance as well as cost, we need to design such a
system that will provide us with exactly how we expect it to be. In
this paper, we documented such a system where we get a smart
water geyser with the combination of electricity efficiency &
intelligence. We analyzed how human body interacts to different
temperature levels of water & the water heating system would
serve according to the need of a person. We also prevented any
undesired consequences that may occur due to overheating & less
temperature resistant plumbing system. This system handled the
outburst of pipes due to overheating. This new water heating
system can also act as an intelligent device by making its own
decision whether to keep boiling the water or not by sensing
consumer’s presence.
Index Terms—geyser, water heating, temperature sensors,
electronic devices
is more efficient and it requires less space for installation and
can give up to 100% heat transmutation.
In this paper, we have proposed where the system can
provide a way that can maintain a moderate temperature and
saves energy. We calculated the time it took to heat water
for each user and thereby optimized the use of electricity
and provided the exact temperature that the user wanted by
inferring from the previous values.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The back-
ground history and comparison related to this paper is given
in the Section II. The next Section III covered the experimental
environment such as equipments required, the desktop config-
uration, development platform or softwares needed. Then in
the Section IV, we defined some terms regarding water heating
system and the overall architecture of our system. Section V
delineated the sample evaluation of the system simulation.
Then in the Section VI, we proposed the future expansion
of the project with its limitations. Further, in the Section VII
we concluded the topic discussed with its existing limitations.

I. I NTRODUCTION II. L ITERATURE R EVIEW

Geyser is a water heating system mainly used in home
appliances with a hot spring of boiling water. It can also be
used instead of water heater, for household purposes [1]. It
works with continuous flow of water. Geysers heat and retain
a quantity of water inside an insulated cylinder to use at any
time. They provide hot water by delivering the whole stored
quantity immediately when it’s needed, and give services to
multiple outlets at the same time. When emptied, it takes time
to reheat to have back in hot water, but they heat water quickly,
especially with more powerful or twin elements, and can be
run on lower cost off-peak electricity.
Before electric water heating, there was gas water heating
system. But it was inefficient due to some technical aspects.
Such as there was wastage of burning gases when the power
was off and it had around 70% potency [2] and there was
some environmental pollutants endangered due to release of
gas to the open air. Gas heater is still in use, but throughout
the years electric heater is more popular now. Electric heater
Previously there were basically two types of water heaters-
storage water heater and instantaneous water heaters [3].
And gas was used to produce heat energy. But there were
many inefficiencies related to this, such as heat loss and
environmental issues. To abridge these negative side effects
and to make more provident use of the available resources,
much work has been done in the recent past.
In the typical gas fired water heating system, heat loss
may happen through the flues of the heater during standby
periods. Through a combination of combustion chamber and
heat exchange, this unwanted effect can be eliminated [4].
The waste gases are discharged and directed towards the heat
exchange tubes, and in turn this waste gas can increase the
temperature of the water further. Besides, the heat exchange
tubes are also connected to a condensation system which can
solve the environmental issues. In such way, some solutions
to the gas fired water heating system were suggested in the
paper [2].

c
978-1-5386-4273-3/18/$31.00
2018 IEEE
2018 3rd International Conference for Convergence in Technology (I2CT)
Controlling the temperature of the water is a focus point [3].
A flammable gas sensor, connected with a micro-controller
can verify the air intake with a predetermined concentration
of gas and turn off the burner. Thus the temperature can
be moderated. Furthermore, the carbon monoxide sensor can
detect the unwanted level of CO and can send a signal to the
control panel analogous to the operation of the gas sensor [3].
PIC micro-controller can be used to make the water heater
appear as intelligent by developing a usage profile of the user
of that heater [5]. The controller is programmed to generate
the demanding temperature based on the usage profile. This
adaptability can eradicate heat loss and thus save energy [6].
In sum, there are numerous existing features which makes
the water heating system proficient, electrically optimized thus
environment-friendly. But most of them don’t integrate user
personalized features. Whereas, our proposed system saves
energy & intelligently calculates the desired temperature every
time.
III. E XPERIMENTAL E QUIPMENT
Our experimental platform consisted of Intel Core-i5
1.7GHz processor running on a Windows 10 operating system
of 64-bit that communicated via Arduino IDE version 1.6.8.
Our components included an Arduino Uno, which could
be easily connected via USB. The Uno is the most robust,
most used and documented board. Simple USB connection to
the PC gives it power connection. Spring heater was used to
show the demo of our geyser or water heater. It consumes
energy from electricity to increase water temperature varying
with the consumption rate. As we showed a demo of geyser,
we used a water container of 1 liter constant amount of
water. So that when the simulation starts, it would work as
a prototype of a geyser and stores water until it was ready to
use. Our next components were breadboard and jumper wires.
Temperature sensor module, DS18b20 was used, it is pre-
wired and waterproof and comes in handy when to measure
something far away or in wet conditions. As it is digital, there
is no fear of signal degradation even over long distances, so
works as a great replacement of industrial thermometers in our
experiment. A single relay board was used, it is mainly used
for turning on/off devices without any manual switch while
keeping devices isolated from Arduino Uno. This allowed us to
control high-power devices (up to 10A) via the on-board relay.
It had LED indicators to provide visual feedback and screw
terminals for relay connections. A power adapter was used to
make it portable and heater is connected to it. 3 LEDs of three
different colors are used to indicate 3 levels of temperature
according to our experiment.
IV. METHODOLOGY
A. Problem Definition
For water heating system, geyser is the most common
system used in home installation systems. Water heating is
a simple thermodynamic process where a source of energy
like electricity, natural gas or solar energy is used to heat
water. Generally, gas heater and electric heaters are used, but
c
978-1-5386-4273-3/18/$31.00
2018 IEEE
electric heater is more safe, affordable, efficient and is the most
frequently chosen option. In this paper, we proposed a system,
that can provide a way to maintain a moderate temperature
and save energy. Representing spring heater instead of a demo
geyser, we would set a specific temperature range on it. After
switching the system on for the first time, if the temperature
of the water went below the preset range, the heater auto-
rebooted and took the water into that range of heat. If the
heater was on and sat idle for a very long time, the whole
system might be turned off regarding the possibilities that no
consumption of water was going on.
Definition 1: Geyser is a hot spring in which water intermit-
tently boils by reducing extraneous loss of energy in a given
condition [7] and sending a tall column of water and steam
into the air.
Definition 2: A gas heater is used for heating a place by
burning various gaseous substances such as propane, butane
or natural gas.
Definition 3: An electric heater can be used for transmuting
electric current into heat. These electrical devices convert the
electrical energy by using resistors.
B. System Architecture
To implement as we planned the system, at first the code was
burnt into the Arduino UNO via Arduino IDE. The relay board
was connected to the adapter and the spring heater got the AC
power supply from there. In the Arduino, the connections for
the DS18b20 were made and also for the indicating lights. The
DS18b20 sensor got the temperature from the water and gave
readings along with the LEDs that showed the corresponding
temperature range. All the components were connected in this
way and was shown in the Fig. 1 as a block diagram:
Figure 1: Block Diagram
C. Working Concept
The whole system functions in this way: Let us set an
example, the lowermost temperature is 15 ◦C and the upper-
most temperature is 70 ◦C. When, the system is on and the
temperature is below 15 ◦C, it hits the yellow LED on and
the spring heater starts heating. Temperature between 15 ◦C
and 70 ◦C leads the green LED on, and any temperature above
70 ◦C blinks the red LED on. The upper and lower limit is
2018 3rd International Conference for Convergence in Technology (I2CT)

totally set based on a general users’ angle. The heater will

be on whenever it is below 15 ◦C and it will be off above System Start
70 ◦C. A moderate mid-temperature, 50 ◦C is set. When the
temperature starts decreasing from more than 70 ◦C, the heater Yellow LED On Red LED On
is still off as the water is still hot enough and can be used. T>70
T<15
Whenever the temperature sensor gives us the output of 50 ◦C Check
i.e. the moderate temperature, the heater is again turned on. Heater On Temperature, T Heater Off
The heater will be turned off and on every time via the relay
module set in the adapter, not manually. We will be setting 15<=T<=70
T>50
a time range for which the heater is going to be on, say T<=50
Check Green LED On Check
it is for 60 minutes. That means, the heater will go on the
Temperature, T Temperature, T
above mentioned process on loop for 60 minutes long (This 60
minutes is set based on the users’ perceived behavioral data). T>70
Let us assume that, the user has gone outside or he has turned T<=70
on the geyser but forgot to turn it off. To handle these cases, ON
we have introduced our adaptability feature which is the key
point of our experiment, validating the artificial intelligence. Check
After the 60 minutes time the heater will be off and we will be Time, t t<t0
Check
considering next 90 minutes to see if anyone turns the heater Heater
on or not, assuming the user may return. If the user comes t>=t0 Status
20 minutes after the heater is off and turns the heater on, that Heater Off
20 minutes of time is stored into a variable and the next time OFF
the heater will be going on through the ON/OFF process on
t<tk(low)
loop for 60+ 20 2 =70 minutes. So, for the next time the whole t>t0+tk(high)
process will be replaced by 70 minutes instead of previous 60 Check Check
minutes threshold time. Time, t Time, t

This adaptability function is also applicable for time lower t>=tk(low)

than the threshold time. If a user turns off the heater at time t<=t0+tk(high)
say 40 minutes after the system starts, then the new threshold t0=(t+t0)/2
time will be set to time 60+40
2 = 50 minutes which is less than
OFF Check
the previous threshold value of 60 minutes.
Heater
But decreasing the preset time wouldn’t go lower than 30 Status
minutes and increasing the preset time wouldn’t go higher than
ON
150 minutes, otherwise this would make the system unfriendly
System End
and wouldn’t serve the actual purpose of the project. t0=t0+(t-t0)/2
Hereby, we can store each users’ data for optimizing the
next usage, limiting the electricity and water usage depending Figure 2: Flow Chart

on the behavior of the user.

Here, we can see a flow chart in Fig. 2 which shows the
simulation. The system checks if the temperature is within
15 ◦C and 70 ◦C. It checks whether the current time, t is greater
than or equal to the threshold time, t0 (60 minutes). If it is, the
heater is turned off and waits, and checks the time again. If
this time, t is greater than the summation of threshold time, t0
and fixed checking time, tk (high), which is about 90 minutes,
than the system power is turned off. If not and the heater
is turned on again, new threshold time is calculated in the
aforementioned way and the system starts again. Furthermore,
if the heater is turned off in less than time, t0 but greater than
fixed checking time, tk (low), which is about 30 minutes, the
new reduced threshold time is calculated and the systems stops
until it is powered on again.
D. Model
The system runs a water heating process and takes the tem-
perature of the water as input, engenders output accordingly by
switching on or off the heater and enlightening the respective
LEDs of different color. The system runs the process for a
certain time and occludes it afterwards. As per the user’s wish,
the system also can take input from the user when the user
wants the process running according to his/her comfort. In this
case, the time previously set for running the system changes
(the average of the extra time is added to the previous time).
Suppose, the previously set time is t0 . The system will run
for t0 unit of time generally. But if the user comes after t0 , at
time t1 and finds the process shut down, then turns it on, the
previously set time will now change into,
(t1 − t0 )
tn = t0 + (1)
2
Here, tn is actually the average of the formerly set time and
the time when the user comes.
Follwing is our Algorithm 1, that depicted the whole system
in pseudocode.

c
978-1-5386-4273-3/18/$31.00 2018 IEEE
2018 3rd International Conference for Convergence in Technology (I2CT)

Algorithm 1 HeaterFunction(Modules) 1) Case Study 1: We started from the moderate temperature

1: AutoO f f Time ← 60 minutes with 1 liter of water. We took above 70 ◦C and let it cool down
2: LowTemperature ← 15 ◦C to moderate temperature and made the process running until
3: HighTemperature ← 70 ◦C it reaches the temperature above 70 ◦C again.
4: while System Power On do Table II: Data sheet of Case Study 1
5: if Temperature < LowTemperature then
Water State Temp (◦C) Heater State LED Time(min)
6: TURN ON Y ELLOW LED MODERATE 26.94 ON GREEN 1
7: HEAT ER ON MODERATE 28.94 ON GREEN 2
8: else if LowTemperature ≤ Temperature ≤ 50 ◦C then MODERATE 29.19 ON GREEN 3
MODERATE 29.62 ON GREEN 4
9: TURN ON GREEN LED
MODERATE 31.00 ON GREEN 5
10: HEAT ER ON MODERATE 33.19 ON GREEN 6
11: else if LowTemperature ≥ HighTemperature then MODERATE 33.31 ON GREEN 7
12: TURN ON RED LED MODERATE 37.75 ON GREEN 8
MODERATE 39.25 ON GREEN 9
13: HEAT ER OFF MODERATE 42.13 ON GREEN 10
14: end if MODERATE 48.81 ON GREEN 11
15: if CurrentTime ≥ AutoO f f Time then MODERATE 58.63 ON GREEN 12
16: TURN OFF ALL LEDS HOT 71.31 OFF RED 13
MODERATE 59.44 OFF GREEN 29
17: HEAT ER OFF MODERATE 53.061 OFF GREEN 36
18: repeat MODERATE 50.06 OFF GREEN 39.1
19: P ← CurrentTime – AutoO f f Time MODERATE 49.06 ON GREEN 40.8
MODERATE 50.56 ON GREEN 41.8
20: until HEAT ER ON OR P > 90 minutes MODERATE 53.75 ON GREEN 42.8
21: if P ≤ 90 minutes then MODERATE 56.88 ON GREEN 43.8
22: AutoO f f Time ← AutoO f f Time + P/2 MODERATE 60.81 ON GREEN 44.8
23: else MODERATE 64.69 ON GREEN 45.8
MODERATE 68.67 ON GREEN 46.8
24: System Power O f f HOT 70.68 OFF RED 47.37
25: end if
26: CurrentTime ← 0
2) Case Study 2: Initially starting from cold state of water,
27: end if
we took empirical result above 70 ◦C. Here, we experimented
28: if System Power OFF then
with 1.5 liter of water. Temperature was being checked in
29: if CurrentTime ≥ 30 minutes then
every 1 minute.
30: Time ← (AutoO f f Time +CurrentTime)/2
31: AutoO f f Time ← Time Table III: Data sheet of Case Study 2
32: end if Water State Temp (◦C) Heater State LED Time(min)
33: end if COLD 14.63 ON YELLOW 1
34: end while MODERATE 15.81 ON GREEN 2
MODERATE 18.12 ON GREEN 3
MODERATE 26.12 ON GREEN 4
MODERATE 29.94 ON GREEN 5
The logic of the entire system is depicted in the following MODERATE 33.88 ON GREEN 6
Table I. MODERATE 37.06 ON GREEN 7
MODERATE 40.19 ON GREEN 8
MODERATE 43.75 ON GREEN 9
Table I: Logic Function MODERATE 46.56 ON GREEN 10
MODERATE 49.75 ON GREEN 11
Water State Temperature (◦C) Heater State LED MODERATE 52.00 ON GREEN 12
COLD T<15 ON YELLOW MODERATE 54.56 ON GREEN 13
MODERATE 15≤T≤70 ON GREEN MODERATE 57.25 ON GREEN 14
HOT T>70 OFF RED MODERATE 59.50 ON GREEN 15
MODERATE 61.81 ON GREEN 16
MODERATE 64.00 ON GREEN 17
Suppose, T be the current temperature sensed by the water- MODERATE 65.94 ON GREEN 18
proof temperature sensor. There are three water states under MODERATE 67.12 ON GREEN 19
consideration such as cold, moderate and hot. Two states are MODERATE 69.56 ON GREEN 20
HOT 70.81 OFF RED 21
considered as heater state- on/ off. Three types of LED colors
signify the three water states.
System adaptability is the innovative feature, providing
V. E MPIRICAL S TUDY artificial intelligence to the system, making it user friendly
Now, a data sheet is provided below, based on two case and running as per users’ consent and satisfaction level. The
studies. Here, every variables’ status related to the entire changes made by the system through understanding users’
process is shown in the Table II and Table III. behavioral intention, is given in the Table IV.

c
978-1-5386-4273-3/18/$31.00 2018 IEEE
2018 3rd International Conference for Convergence in Technology (I2CT)

Table IV: Adaptibility Function

Previous Threshold (min) User’s Arrival Time (min) Heater State Current Threshold (min) Remarks
60 N/A OFF N/A At first the heater was
meant to be running for 60
minutes. As the user
wasn’t around, the heater
automatically turned off
sensing that user is not
using the system.
60 80 ON 70 The user wanted to run the
system for 80 minutes, but
the AI within the machine
thought to turn off the
system and save electricity.
Now at 80 minutes when
the user turns the system
on, then the AI
understands that the system
needed to be run more than
the previous time. So, the
system sets the running
time to 70 minutes,
according to the algorithm.
60 40 OFF 50 In this case the user
wanted to run the system
for 40 minutes, but the
previously set time was 60
minutes. So, if the user
turns it off at 40 minutes,
by understanding user
requirements from now on
the system will run for 50
minutes according to the
algorithm.
70 240 ON 70 Here, the user probably
turns on the heater for
some other use and due to
being very late to turn the
heater on, the threshold
time won’t change. After
60 minutes the heater
automatically turns off and
then for 90 minutes it is
checked whether the user
has come or not. Here, the
user comes 170 minutes
after the heater has
automatically been turned
off. So, the threshold time
doesn’t change.
50 6 OFF 50 Now, the user turns off the
heater for some reason, and
due to being very early that
water didn’t even warm up
properly, the threshold time
won’t change. Because the
threshold time can only
change if the user turns the
heater off at least after 30
minutes but here the user
comes only after 6 minutes.

c
978-1-5386-4273-3/18/$31.00 2018 IEEE
2018 3rd International Conference for Convergence in Technology (I2CT)

VI. F UTURE E XTENSION R EFERENCES

More intelligence can be programmed and make the system
more user friendly and less human controlled. The following
extended features can be added to our system:
1. The system may enlist user profile and cache them into
RAM or keep a database, so that it can give unique services
to each individual [8]. In the recent expansion of Internet of
Things (IoT) or The Smart Home System, such system can be
handy.
2. It can be controlled by infrared sensor remote or android
mobile application providing some essential control function
such as power on/off mode, setting temperature, setting their
timer. It can be voice controlled also [9].
3. More adaptiveness can be achieved by sensing a person’s
body temperature & the weather outside, the system will
generate the exact temperature, thus also preventing water
wastage due to the hassles of mixing up cold and hot water.
4. Our system is now static as there is fixed amount of
water. If we develop this prototype into a dynamic one by
providing continuous flow of water, it will become easier to
use such system in large houses or institutions like hospitals
and factories as well.
5. The system may provide services by enabling seasonal
mode which means it will generate the water supply, according
to the seasons like winter or summer or spring [10].
6. SMS integration can be enabled and sent to the user when
the intelligence in the machine will realize that the user is not
around or have forgotten to switch off the machine.
All these extended features can make the system more
intelligent and can provide services that quench users’ require-
ments.
[1] J. Meyer and M. Tshimankinda, “Domestic hot water consumption
in south african houses for developed and developing communities,”
International Journal of Energy Research, vol. 21, no. 7, pp. 667–673,
1997.
[2] D. N. Granberg, “High efficiency water heater,” 1987, uS Patent
4,651,714.
[3] J. H. Brandt, R. T. Meyer, and B. N. Plank, “Control system for a water
heater,” 1998, uS Patent 5,797,358.
[4] J. P. Eising, “Submersible chamber water heater,” Dec. 13 1988, uS
Patent 4,790,268.
[5] S. K. Reza, S. A. M. Tariq, and S. M. Reza, “Microcontroller based
automated water level sensing and controlling: design and implementa-
tion issue,” in Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and
Computer Science, vol. 1, 2010, pp. 20–22.
[6] Q. Catherine, J. Wheeler, R. Wilkinson, and G. de Jager, “Hot water
usage profiling to improve geyser efficiency,” Journal of Energy in
Southern Africa, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 39–45, 2012.
[7] D. E. White, “Some principles of geyser activity, mainly from steamboat
springs, nevada,” American Journal of Science, vol. 265, no. 8, pp. 641–
684, 1967.
[8] U. Jordan and K. Vajen, “Dhwcalc: Program to generate domestic hot
water profiles with statistical means for user defined conditions,” in ISES
Solar World Congress, 2005, pp. 1–6.
[9] P. O. Boe, “Remote water heater controller,” Feb. 4 1986, uS Patent
4,568,821.
[10] T. R. Vandermeyden, “Hot water heater controller,” May 23 1989, uS
Patent 4,832,259.

VII. C ONCLUSION

The work in the paper presented the design of a smart water

geyser system. The goal of implementing our smart geyser
system is to optimize the use of electricity, hence energy
consumption and calculate the heating time for each user. So,
it is providing a low cost alternative to existing solutions. But,
one of the major drawbacks include not optimizing the water
usage. Implementing a design that can reduce the water usage
can have a huge impact and make the system more desirable
to customers. The time, added to the threshold time can be
varied based on user to user and external temperatures and
variables, we are not handling this matter also.
To implement the smart geyser system, it doesn’t take that
much money and it’s very easy to implement, operate and
control. The proposed system can help rural dwellers and
urban communities. The design is also reliable because user
doesn’t have to go and set the time and temperature everyday,
rather it monitors and responds automatically according to
the user’s usage behavior by learning from previous inputs.
If this system is considered to be taken in mass production,
this design could easily be adjusted and improvised.

c
978-1-5386-4273-3/18/$31.00 2018 IEEE

View publication stats