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Title: Noninvasive Fuel Flow Monitoring System for Vented Fuel Oil Heaters
In this work, we present hardware and firmware design and preliminary testing results for a noninvasive device for measuring fuel oil consumption in fuel oil vented heaters. Fuel oil vented heaters are a popular space heating method in northern climates. Monitoring fuel consumption is useful to understanding residential daily and seasonal heating patterns and understanding the thermal characteristics of buildings. The device is a pump monitoring apparatus (PuMA) that employs a magnetoresistive sensor to monitor the activity of solenoid driven positive displacement pumps, which are commonly used in fuel oil vented heaters. PuMA accuracy for calculating fuel oil consumption was evaluated in a lab setting and found to vary up to 7% from the measured consumption value during testing. This variance will be explored more in field testing.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1522836
PAR ID:
10485250
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Publisher / Repository:
MDPI
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Sensors
Volume:
23
Issue:
12
ISSN:
1424-8220
Page Range / eLocation ID:
5664
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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