Leaving the cooker on

Someone forgetful (can't remember who) has a habit of leaving the house with the gas stove or oven lit. I've been thinking of ways of detecting this, so that an alarm or something can trigger before that (er, nameless) person leaves....

Fitting some sort of gas flow detector on the cooker pipe sounds a bit tricky though, unless I go sort of industrial with ultrasonics. An alternative would be something that monitored the position of the hob/oven controls. A heat sensor would be no good - it would still be detecting warmth when the fire has been turned off.

Is there some gadget marketted already for this need?

Ideas?

Reply to
Adrian C
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My gas meter makes audible clunks when gas is being consumed, I once considered working out the volume of gas per clunk and use a microphone/amp/trigger circuit to log the usage, but never got round tuit.

If the cooker and hob are the only gas appliances, maybe you could do something like that and perhaps somehow link it to an alarm zone so it couldn't be set until the "fault" is cleared.

Reply to
Graham.

Simples. Door actuated message which says "Have you turned the gas off?" each time someone uses the front door. I suspect that after a short time memory lapses will be a thing of the past to avoid the constant irritation. You need something linked to the front door otherwise how can the alarm sound when the person is leaving? [Another on the back door just in case?] Unless you want a warning saying "Gas being consumed...gas being consumed...." every time you cook a meal.

Reply to
David WE Roberts

EDIT

Reply to
David WE Roberts

My ageing neighbour used to regularly go out and leave the back door wide open.

The decidedly low tech answer to that was to print an A4 sign for her. Top half was a large "stop" sign, bottom half said "Have you shut and locked the back door?" and attach it to the inside of the front door.

Perhaps something similar for you telling you to check the cooker?

Reply to
Him & Her

Easy. Stop paying your gas bill. After they have taken you to court they will come round and fit a prepayment meter. In future when you leave the house, your shilling will run out before you are half way down the drive and the gas will just go out.

Job done. And we didn't even need to resort to an angle grinder.

Nick

Reply to
Nick Odell

A mate told me there is a magnet on one of the lower dials so a Hall sensor on the front could be used to detect revolutions.

I have neither attempted to verify this nor isolate it to any particular model of meter - but it's something to think about maybe?

Reply to
Tim Watts

Yep, that's a plan. Will investigate, though will also have to think how to logically isolate what may be used at that moment for heating.

Perhaps the stop sign in that case ...

Reply to
Adrian C

Not if you used something like a flame failure thermocouple that is directly heated by the gas flame when it is on. Of course, that would need multiple detectors. However, do you leave the house immediately after using the cooker sufficiently often for the odd false alarm to be a problem?

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

Even better - electric fence type of thingy attached to door handle.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

Adrian C :

You could manufacture some sort of cover for the cooker and detect whether it's in place or not. Not foolproof, but worth a thought.

Reply to
Mike Barnes

Can you change the cooker to an electric one?

That's much easier to interface and control. A couple of bright neons / LEDs (with diode and resistor) across the output of the cooker switch to near the front door would be easy to do.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

Unfortunately not. However, it's now just the gas hob that needs monitoring.

We are in the midst of a kitchen refit, and the lady has decided to go for an electric oven - good, that's easy to monitor.

I'm probably going to fit Hall sensors below the hob and magnets under the controls, but have yet to see what the new hob is like to do so.

I'll tell the truth, it's actually her who's playing up with forgetting to turn the hob off, and occasionally we've just sat there in the lounge scoffing dinner in front of an hour long TV programme, and meanwhile the gas meter's running....

Thanks all. Project will now progress up the tuit stack (and be finished

2014..)
Reply to
Adrian C

What's wrong with a solenoid valve, using a relay latched by a set of it's own contacts, where the circuit is broken by a front door switch when the door is opened?

Reply to
Fredxx

Annoying when your guests arrive for dinner and you have to open the door just as everything is being cooked.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

LOL - maybe, but pressing the button to latch the solenoid again is easy enough, and press the respective knobs in to ignite each of the burners. It all depends on how many visitors this nameless and forgetful person gets, if he can remember of course?

Reply to
Fredxx

I wonder if there are hobs out there with electric flame failure devices... since they would likely cut off the gas on the removal of power, so a simple one shot timer affair could be employed.

Reply to
John Rumm

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