iGen Smart Fuel Switching Furnace

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The purpose of this research project is to develop a cloud-based smart dual fuel switching controller that is ableto use the capabilities of iGEN Technologies' i2 micro CHP based furnace's fuel-switching technique tomaximize the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. With the furnace being able to support theauxiliary input of renewable energy sources and provide battery storage, the smart controller will have amultitude of fuel options to choose from, while also being able to fulfill secondary objectives such as loadprioritization and peak shaving. The flexibility of the smart cloud-based controller ensures that it can be used inany mode of operation in any location of the world, whether to replace diesel generators in rural communitiesor as CHP plants in islanded microgrids when there is an electrical outage. In this project, the novel iGEN i2furnace will be deployed at a research house located at the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority(TRCA), in parallel to an existing, conventional furnace. The furnace will then be augmented by amicroprocessor-based smart controller that will execute the cloud-based control algorithm, developed byRyerson University. The smart microprocessor-based controller will also acquire data from various pointswithin the system (temperature, power output, natural gas consumption, etc.) and push the data to aweb-accessible, cloud based data warehouse for analytical purposes. The data from the simulations will bepublicly available for other researchers, utilities, and homeowners to leverage for their own purposes.Additionally, the cloud-based portal will also be used to remotely control the furnace such that control signalscan be sent from participating utilities and transmission system operators (TSOs).