Arduino-ish view of the death of a hot water heater

Electronics
#1

I was helping a friend understand the efficiency of his hot water recirculation system by monitoring temperature of the return line when the heater died. This link is live and updated every 20 seconds. The site is slow but free.
https://thingspeak.com/apps/matlab_visualizations/178190

This uses a Wemos D1 Mini, a DS18B20 temperature sensor and a free account on ThingSpeak.com. It can tweet things like, “Prepare for a cold shower this morning!” I have conducted a couple of classes on these and will be listing more within the next week.

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#2

Looks like a quick replace was completed. The new plot is a lot cleaner and variations are smaller than the old model?

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#3

After my post, I got an update. Turns out the heater is not dead yet. The pilot went out and he turned off the gas a while and then cleaned the area around the burner. “Lots of crud came off.” As you say, it looks a lot cleaner now. You cannot tell from this plot but the ragged look as the temperature is dropping is primarily during times when hot water is being used. Sounds like the heater will be replaced reasonably soon but he is evaluating moving to a tankless system.

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