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Description
Nature-inspired HUUM is an Estonian company producing high-quality sauna heaters that merge exquisite design, gentle steam, and smart technology.
In electricity markets, network operators (Elering, Fingrid, etc.) have the obligation to maintain a balanced operation in the electricity system. For this solution, HUUM is looking for devices that can be used for consumption control, if necessary. At the moment, Huum does not have the technology to aggregate its own devices, which are high-power electric heaters, and bring consumption management to the market.
The aim of the project is to upgrade the control controllers of the HUUM heater heating system smartly and hardware-wise, so that they can be integrated with the consumption management platform on the market. In order to enter the market with the service, it is planned to upgrade the control controllers of the heating system of HUUM heaters and integrate them with the consumption management platform on the market. It is important to develop the controller, software and cloud communication in such a way that all switching works with no more than a second delay, while data collection works with a second interval. In order to participate in the consumption control market, the switching power must be at least 1MW. Since the capacities of HUUM heaters are large, approximately 150-200 heaters need to be integrated with the consumption management system to start the service.
Summary of project results
The project tackled the challenge of developing artificial intelligence capabilities to increase the usability of HUUM products and energy savings resulting from optimising sauna use.
Modern electric heaters allow to choose the temperature to which the sauna is heated. When this is reached, the heater switches off. However, after switching off, the heater is still hot. In the case of larger heaters, this can increase the temperature by up to 10 degrees due to thermal inertia, depending on the size of the room and other parameters. This means that when heating is stopped at 90 degrees, the temperature of the steam room can increase further to 100 degrees. To get rid of unwanted extra degrees, the door is often opened to cool the room. When the temperature drops, the heater switches itself back on to stay at the target value assigned to it. This means that an additional amount of energy is used that is not actually needed to reach the desired temperature. This is because today''s solutions do not take into account the heating inertia of the heater.
Within the project the regulatory and technical requirements for using AI were identified, the existing software was improved, and new software to provide the service was developed. In addition, a new accessory was developed that could be added for power measurement, and existing hardware was upgraded to enable future measurement of power and frequency within the controller, and the components needed for switching were better suited to the increased number of switching operations.
Newly developed HUUM AI module can determine the best individual approach to heating each sauna based on the parameters of the steam room. In such a way that there would be the least energy loss. The AI module added to the control system is self-learning, takes into account heating inertia and analyses user behaviour and the specifics of the steam room. In addition to energy savings, the sauna experience as a whole becomes more comfortable, as the desired temperature remains more evenly in the steam room.
HUUM''s development of environmentally friendly products makes it possible to make sauna use significantly more environmentally friendly, makes it more convenient for the end user, and thereby improves the user experience as a whole. Approximately 15,000 heaters have been connected to the company''s cloud and are also being deployed, which are used to provide consumption management services. The service offering and expansion of the target group continues.