Design and implementation of a simple electromechanical system to reduce domestic gas wastage and accidents in South-Asia

This paper elaborates design and implementation aspects of a system design project which aims at modernizing the current design of domestic gas-stoves with a simple electromechanical sensor-integrated system in order to reduce wastage of gas and accident possibilities in South-Asian households. Statistics show that a significant amount of natural gas is wasted every day in the domestic cooking purpose because of the ignorance of the users by keeping the gas line on even after cooking is done, or during breaks. One of the two major portions of the proposed system will sense the situation of `activity´ of the stove (idle or cooking); the other will sense the state of the gas knob (on or off) and send signals to the controller-unit accordingly. Both of these electromechanical sensors were designed and implemented in this project. If the stove remains `idle´ and gas-line is `on´ for a specific amount of time, say five minutes, the controller will automatically close the gas line. The gas line will again automatically `open´ when any of the above states changes (if the stove becomes `active´ or the line is manually closed). The system components were designed and implemented as a whole successfully. The proposed system can either be implemented as an external modification to the existing gas-stoves or can be industrially integrated to make the next-generation energy saving stoves.