In lots of elements of the world, condominium buildings generally make the most of decentralized air flow techniques. As an alternative of a single massive central air dealing with unit (AHU) serving a number of flats, every condominium has its personal small AHU. These pull in exterior air by brief ducts in an exterior wall or ceiling. However within the winter, these ducts permit a draft and probably improve heating prices. Daniel Porzig’s AutoDuct solves this drawback by integrating an computerized shutter into the duct.

We aren’t HVAC (heating, air flow, and air con) consultants, so we will not say if AutoDuct has any potential unintended penalties. However the idea appears sound: AutoDuct merely closes the duct when cooling is pointless, so chilly air would not move into the condominium from exterior. By eliminating that draft, AutoDuct lowers heating system utilization and finally lowers vitality prices spent on heating.

AutoDuct blocks airflow with a easy, however dependable, screw mechanism that pulls a shutter closed. That is sluggish, however that is not an issue for an software like this. Reliability and torque are what matter, and a screw is ideal for that. A geared DC motor drives that screw and a Corridor impact sensor detects when the shutter is totally closed. AutoDuct matches onto the inside aspect of the duct, the place the person can mount and entry it. It sits in entrance of the axial fan meeting and/or warmth exchanger within the duct.

A customized controller PCB opens and closes the shutter as vital. It has a Microchip PIC32MX microcontroller, a HM-17 Bluetooth Low Vitality module, a real-time clock, and a temperature/humidity sensor. It has completely different working modes, so it may open/shut based mostly on a schedule, temperature or humidity thresholds, or in keeping with distant alerts. It may possibly connect with Apple Homekit through the BLE module, and customers could make AutoDuct work with the remainder of their techniques to, as an example, shut the duct any time the heater runs or open it any time the thermostat reveals a temperature over a sure stage.