Internet of Things Sustainable Home Simulator

Lightning system

Lighting in sustainable homes is controlled by the amount of sunlight outside. Our lab project simulates a room lighting optimization system where the light inside the building is controlled by how much natural light there is outside. In other words, during daytime, when the sun is out, the lighting should be off inside the building, while during night time, when there is no natural light, the lighting should be on. This system ensures sustainability and high building efficiency.

Theory of operation

One Arduino sends values from a photosensor (ideally outside), and the values control the LED connected to the other Arduino (from inside). We used a broker called Mosquitto. The first Arduino is sending a unique topic, the ADC values as characters, then an end message. The other Arduino is then receiving the string and changing it to an int which it uses to turn the LED on. If the ADC value is less then 400, we turn the LED on and if it is greater than that, the LED is turned off.

Ventilation system using DC Motor

Similarly, we also used the DC motor to simulate a ventilation system of fans so that when the temperature goes below the threshold value, the motor (running hypothetical fans) starts running. Its speed is dependent on how hot it gets outside. In other words, the higher the temperature (the hotter it is outside) the higher the speed at which the fans are spinning.

Theory of operation

This time, one Arduino sends values from a temperature sensor (ideally outside), and the values control the DC motor connected to the other Arduino (from inside). The input values are mapped into the the range of values the motor can take in (0-255). We also used Mosquitto for code. Similar to the previous example, one Arduino is sending a unique topic and the corresponding ADC values as characters, The other Arduino is then receiving the string and changing it to an int variable which it uses to power the DC motor through the PWM pins.