hot water flow sensor

[jessey]

Hi Darrel,

Thanks for all your suggestions and for giving me an approach to follow for doing this. Well I finally got my test code working good, at least on the bench for now anyways. I thought I'd post it for you and others to have a look at for any possible comments. Once I build the unit to see how it works then I can cut the size of the program down considerably.

It's a fairly short program. I have (probably not needed but good for testing) created variables where as I can programme the temperature of the water coming out of the tap, an adjustable high limit temperature point for safety and also to know when the tap is off. And instead of a timer in the program & relay to control the ambient temperature when the tap is off I'll have it temperature controlled. I'm also thinking that I should have a differential for the ambient temperature of a few degrees so the relay or triac (relay for now) doesn't chatter or cycle too often.

I'm just going to use mild steel for the prototype to see how it works then when I have a good design then I'll switch to stainless steel construction. My first design will be a unit just big enough to house the heating elements with a very minimum water capacity. What kind of water capacity does your commercial unit hold?

For the DS1820 sensor, I was thinking of getting a suitable sized stainless steel tubing and epoxy the sensor into it then with the appropriate size fitting installed into the tank use a furrow and a nut to secure it into the tank or just epoxy the sensor to the outside of the tank. Any suggestions for accomplishing this?

Thanks for your help and I look forward to any further comments that you or anyone else here might have.

Thanks
jessey