A method for identifying an electric water heater having excessive and abnormal electricity consumption for detecting inefficiency or even a malfunction comprising the following steps: The present invention provides a method for automatic detection of inefficient household heater within a group of monitored households, implemented by a server module and a plurality of household client modules, wherein each of said a server module and plurality of household client modules comprising one or more processors, operatively coupled to non-transitory computer readable storage devices, on which are stored modules of instruction code, wherein execution of said instruction code by said one or more processors implements the following actions: acquiring data relating to each monitored household, including at least part of: environmental conditions, power consumption of each water heater, household profile parameters, and household residents' profile parameters; detect events wherein the water heater's power consumption (P) surpasses a predefined threshold (Pth), and henceforth label said detected events as “water heater activation” events; For each house (i) in the training set, and per each consumption day (d), define a binary label L.sub.id. Said label marks the water heater's activity as either ‘Normal’ or ‘Abnormal’ per house i and day d. Initialize all labels as ‘normal training a machine learning algorithm, to create at least one classification model, wherein all monitored households are classified according to said acquired data and parameters; and Using the Activation Events Classification Model after the training stage, to predict the binary label, L.sub.id, or number activation per day that a specific household (i), from beyond the household training set has surpassed a predefined number of water heater activation events (n) within a day.

A tankless water heater, comprising: a flow channel with a cold-water inlet pipe, a heating unit with an heating element configured to heat water flowing through the heating unit and a hot-water outlet pipe, and a control unit configured to control the tankless water heater, wherein the control unit is configured to receive a power limitation signal of an external facility management system and to control a heating output of the heating element depending on the power limitation signal.

A system for regulating a building energy supply and distribution installation, the installation including items of energy collection equipment, each of which is in an energy transfer relationship with a respective source; items of energy transformation equipment powered by the collection equipment; items of energy using equipment; the regulation system configured for defining, for the items of equipment, different respective activation states chosen according to parameters, for optimizing with regard to criteria. The system implements a method in the installation, with the following steps: regulation is performed by placing the items of equipment in respective activation states chosen according to demand and parameters, for the purpose of optimizing with regard to criteria; at an intervention instant of regulation, regulation takes forecasts relating to at least one of the parameters into account, the forecasts relating to a period after the intervention instant. A related installation includes the regulation system.

A system for regulating a building energy supply and distribution installation, the installation including items of energy collection equipment, each of which is in an energy transfer relationship with a respective source; items of energy transformation equipment powered by the collection equipment; items of energy using equipment; the regulation system configured for defining, for the items of equipment, different respective activation states chosen according to parameters, for optimizing with regard to criteria. The system implements a method in the installation, with the following steps: regulation is performed by placing the items of equipment in respective activation states chosen according to demand and parameters, for the purpose of optimizing with regard to criteria; at an intervention instant of regulation, regulation takes forecasts relating to at least one of the parameters into account, the forecasts relating to a period after the intervention instant. A related installation includes the regulation system.

A solar photovoltaic (PV) water heating system includes a tank including at least a first heating unit having at least first and second heating elements, at least one of which is switchable; a PV solar collector; an inverter adapted to convert the output from the PV collector to an alternating power supply; a modulator to modulate the alternating power supply from the inverter; a controller adapted to control the modulator and the switching of the or each switchable heating element; wherein the controller is adapted to control the modulator and the switchable heating elements to maximize the energy drawn from the PV collector.

A solar photovoltaic (PV) water heating system includes a tank (1.020) including at least a first heating unit (1.016) having at least first and second heating elements (1.016.1 . . . 1.016.x), at least one of which is switchable (1.014.1A . . . 1.014.1m); a PV solar collector (1.002); an inverter (1.004) adapted to convert the output from the PV collector to an alternating power supply; a modulator (1.060) to modulate the alternating power supply from the inverter; a controller (1.040) adapted to control the modulator and the switching of the or each switchable heating element; wherein the controller is adapted to control the modulator and the switchable heating elements to maximize the energy drawn from the PC collector.

A water heating system can include a water heater having a tank, an inlet line, and an outlet line, where the inlet line provides unheated water to the tank, and where the outlet line draws heated water from the tank. The water heating system can also include multiple sensing devices, where each sensing device of the plurality of sensing devices measures a parameter associated with the tank. The water heating system can further include a controller communicably coupled to the plurality of sensing devices, where the controller determines an amount of heated water in the tank based on measurements made by the plurality of sensing devices.

A water heater appliance, as provided herein, may include a casing, a tank, an inlet conduit, an electric heating system, and a controller. The tank may be disposed within the casing, the tank defining an inlet and an outlet. The inlet conduit may be mounted to the tank at the inlet of the tank. The electric heating system may be in thermal communication with the tank to heat water within the tank. The controller may be in operative communication with the electric heating system. The controller may be configured to initiate a responsive-heating cycle. The responsive heating cycle may include detecting expiration of a dormant event at the water heater appliance, initiating a randomized delay period in response to detecting expiration of the dormant event, and initiating activation of the water heater appliance following the delay period.

A fuel-fired device can include an air-moving device that mixes air and a fuel to generate a fuel-air mixture. The fuel-fired device can also include an air box that provides the air to the air-moving device, and a fuel valve that provides the fuel to the air-moving device, where the fuel valve includes a tracking port coupled to the air box, where the tracking port detects a pressure of the air box. The fuel-fired device can further provide a pressure-regulating device disposed between a pressurized component and the tracking port of the fuel valve. The flow regulating device can control, during an ignition phase of operation, an amount of the fuel provided by the fuel valve to the air-moving device.

A solar photovoltaic (PV) water heating system includes a tank (1.020) including at least a first heating unit (1.016) having at least first and second heating elements (1.016.1 . . . 1.016.x), at least one of which is switchable (1.014.1A . . . 1.014.1m); a PV solar collector (1.002); an inverter (1.004) adapted to convert the output from the PV collector to an alternating power supply; a modulator (1.060) to modulate the alternating power supply from the inverter; a controller (1.040) adapted to control the modulator and the switching of the or each switchable heating element; wherein the controller is adapted to control the modulator and the switchable heating elements to maximize the energy drawn from the PC collector.