Download Opensource PiHome Smart Heating Control: This Project is based on Raspberry Pi, whole systems is presented using Apache web server, all information is stored in MySQL/MariaDB database. Python script is used to log temperature sensor data from One wire DS1820 temperature sensor, most of the code is written in PHP.
PiHome – Smart Heating Control is opensource and available to download free of cost and it is compatible with MySensors WiFi Gateway, Ethernet Gateway and Serial Gateway with nRF24L01+ with PA and LNA wireless Module or you can have all your boiler and zone relay connected to raspberry pi GPIO with wiringpi add GPIO number to MySQL/MariaDB database to control your zone and boiler.
I have all temperatures sensors nods running on Arduino 3.3 with nRF24L01+/2.4GHz RF Wireless Module powered by 18650 battery and Zone Relay Module and Boiler Relay module on Arduino Nano 5v powered by 5v power source.
Before we deep dive into this project something very important: PiHome comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law. DO NOT MAKE ANY CHANGES TO YOUR HEATING SYSTEM UNTIL UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, contents provided here are for information and education purpose only, I take no responsibility for any loss or damage to you or your property.”
You can download PiHome Smart Heating Control from GitHub
I have added button console for boost for each zone and away i m testing this console and i will fine some spare time to do some instructions for this setup.
When you deploy MySQL database it already comes with Ground Floor, First Floor and Hot Water and one Boiler pre-configured. Follow the instructions and enjoy
You can check demo of this at http://www.pihome.eu
Username: Admin
Password: pihome
2 comments
Good evening from Scotland!
I have built a similar project to yours and have been following a similar model, though I have no plans to feed back to the system just yet, only monitor it for tuning. I’m familiar with electronics and have used Pi’s in the past, but putting this lot together (Pi, 2 x nodemui ESP8622 wifi modules, 6 x DS20B18 temperature sensors, 2 x self made neon bulb/LDR opto isolators, 2 x Lithium rechargeable battery packs) has been a challenge! This has more to do with discovering a ‘LAMP Stack’ and configuring Linux, Apache webserver, MySQL, PHP and MQTT. Then there’s learning the languages! Linux, HTML, PHP, SQL, Python… Don’t forget the network, support applications and tools either.
The point is that having seen what you’ve done, I thought I’d give you a digital pat on the back for your ‘PiHome’ and the support site you’ve also developed. I’ve read what you’ve done but taken a slightly more prototype approach. Today is my first full live days monitoring so I’ll see how it goes. As another pat on the back, I’ve been impressed with your web interface and hope to do something very similar. I’ve downloaded your full image and will dissect it soon. I plan to use PHP alongside MySQL to deliver ‘live’ and easily accessible stats within our home, withno plans to open it beyond our doors. I’m making do with autopopulated excel sheets to view the data at present but have a growing database to come back to.
My future plans are to include feedback, fine tuning and optimise the boiler settings as far as I can (circulation pump speed and thermostat) to increase efficiency. Not easy on an oil burner with a static output. I’m also considering converting my electricity monitoring system to use MySQL and eventually run a ‘suite’ of monitoring web pages. I may even tie in our finances for reminders on annual insurance, MOT, utility contract lengths eventually.
Anyway, from a bloke in an Aberdeenshire shed, well done on such a fine well presented project from someone who appreciates what it took to develop. Perhaps you have some advice before I tackle the PHP/SQL ‘frontend’?
Best wishes,
good morning or good afternoon
thank you for your digital pat, as they say necessity is mother of all inventions and back in 2012 i had necessity to control domestic heating from non conventional way and have some control over my energy bill and all commercially available solutions back in 2012 (and its still the same i think all these commercially available options are way behind on options for domestic heating needs and control) didn’t do the job i wanted them to do so only option was to make something suites my needs. being from IT background but very little knowledge of development/programming but i had ambition to do things and i watched hours and hours of videos on php/mysql and other programming languages to educate myself.
coming back to your question on php/mysql, if you want to modify pihome then check /css folder and specially /css/sb-admin-2.css file for cosmetic changes. all header bits are in header.php and then in middle part i have main page contents and last footer where all footer related. header and footer are statics throughout the project hence i had to chop them this way, may be its not right approach but it worked for me as all the time header and footer stay static and main page contents changes so it is easy to refresh/load main body of the page and leave footer and header alone.
PiHome main engine is /cron/boiler.php, this is where all the magic happens, have look into this file to optimize boiler (control on circulation pump speed etc.)
Linux is ever changing platform what i do today may not be valid tomorrow and this make people very frustrated all the time and even article on web get outdated very quickly so i decided to introduce remote interface of pihome and it replicate your internal to publicly hosted pihome (its still in beta) this replace the need to open ports to your raspberry pi or have any vpn to your home network to control heating, i m using openvpn to tap into my home network to control heating then this may not be best options for everyone and personally i dont like this as well to vpn to my pi and then control heating and its more problematic then solution, if my openvpn gets compromised then my all internal network is compromised.
once you have pi LAMP stack up/running then sky is the limit. i have on my to do list a magic mirror but i m way to busy with my job these days and its getting harder and harder to find spare time with two kids. i m also trying to get my head around html5 and MQTT.
once again thank you and let us know how you get on with your changes, may be something i can learn more about domestic heating or i can help you to get where you want to.
pihome