HeatBox

Abstract

Intelligent heating management box (Heat Box) The invention relates to a device for controlling and efficiently managing heating in accommodation dedicated to short-term rental, hotel rooms, guest rooms. It consists of three electronic cards, one for managing intelligence, internet connection, connection to the cloud and processing of the necessary information via embedded programs. A second for managing radio communication to the sensors / actuators via the Zigbee protocol and finally a third for managing the power supply to the cards, with management of a backup battery and the reporting of the mains fault. The device according to the invention is particularly intended for energy management in accommodation for short-term rental, hotel rooms, guest rooms, etc.

Description

Title of the invention: HeatBox

[0001] The present invention relates to an energy management device for short-term rental accommodation.

[0002] Traditional heating management does not allow property managers and owners to control the costs associated with heating accommodations by travellers effectively; there are deviations in the use of the installed heating systems.

[0003] Certain solutions exist for controlling heating systems but are not suitable for rental use: manual forcing of radiators, manual adjustment of periods of occupation / unoccupation, permanent monitoring is essential to avoid any deviation.

[0004] The device according to the invention makes it possible to synchronize the reservation calendars provided by the service providers (AirBNB, Beds24, etc.) in order to allow temperature regulation per room. These said rooms are equipped with a temperature sensor communicating in Zigbee. The device is then capable of controlling the electric radiators as a priority by the pilot wire by means of a cable outlet connected in Zigbee to the device. This connected cable outlet informs the device of the instantaneous electrical consumption per radiator, if after 30 seconds of attempting to stop the radiator by means of the pilot wire the latter continues to operate an anomaly is detected (causes: switching the radiator to manual, increasing the temperature setting on the radiator) and electrically cuts off the radiator by means of the connected cable outlet. Thus no fraud can be carried out on the radiator.In addition, all windows are equipped with an opening sensor to allow the heating to be stopped in the entire home in the event of opening. The device is connected to the Cloud via an internet connection, thus allowing the consumption temperature information to be uploaded... But also to allow the reception of remote commands (modification of temperature settings, off, on, etc.) The device is equipped with a backup battery, thus making it possible to detect a lack of mains power (device unplugged) and if the situation is not restored within a given time, it sends a notification to the manager / owner and turns off the heating. In the event of a failure of the internet connection, no data concerning reservations can be recovered, the device will therefore switch to fallback mode and regulate on the occupation temperature setpoint.

[0005] The device has 3 electronic cards, the first is composed of a microprocessor of type orangepi zero 3 or zero 2 operating on Linux distribution Debian, this card has an SD card type memory, on which three main services run: the AWS Greengrass kernel allowing the Cloud transmission part to work, saving the configuration of the slot, bridge and routing of MQTT messages. The second electronic card has a Zigbee communication chip of type E72-2G4M20S1E as well as an RS232 to USB converter using a CH340G chip, this card is mounted by stacking on the Orangepi zero 2 or Orangepi zero 3. Finally the third electronic card manages the uninterrupted power supply part of the entire device, this card includes a 12v Lithium battery charger as well as a 5V voltage regulator. This card is also capable of reporting the mains fault in order to alert of a power outage. This card is also mounted by stacking on top of the Zigbee communication card.

[0006] The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention

[0007] [Fig. 1] represents the Zigbee communication electronic card (upper part)

[0008]

[0009] [Fig.3] represents the assembly of the cards constituting the device

[0010] With reference to these drawings, the device comprises the Zigbee communication board ([Fig. 1]), assembled by means of the GPIO PINS between the main board (orangepi zero 2 or orangepi zero 3) and the lower face of the zigbee communication board. The power supply board is connected by means of the GPIO PINS of the zigbee communication board and two spacers connecting the communication board and the power supply board.

Claims

[Claim 1] Claims Energy management device suitable for short-term rentals, hotels, lodges, etc. This device, by its design, allows for room-by-room heating control, to check the status of doors / windows and thus to turn off the heating, and to measure the temperature per room. The device is capable, through its Python-coded program, of retrieving reservation calendars in ICal format in order to regulate the ambient temperature per room in comfort / reduced mode. The device is capable of detecting operating anomalies in electric radiators (abnormal power consumption). It is possible to control heating devices (electric radiators) using the pilot wire and, if necessary, to cut off the power supply to said radiator in the event of a drift. Measuring power consumption allows this operation to be carried out.A consumption totalizer allows to measure the consumption in Kwh per radiator. All sensors and actuators communicate using the Zigbee protocol. The device is capable of managing the absence of mains power by operating on the integrated battery. The device is also capable of operating in fallback mode if a loss of internet connection is detected. The above-mentioned device is adaptable to all heating modes (Electric, Gas Boiler, Thermostatic Valve, etc.). The device is connected to the AWS Cloud to allow remote viewing of values and to allow the sending of control orders (On / Off, Temperature Setpoint, etc.).

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