Additional PuMA Fuel Meters to be Installed in Tanana

ACEP engineering students Baxter Bond and Alana Vilagi will install 12 Pump Metering Apparatus (PuMA) fuel meter devices in homes in Tanana this week, testing the wireless data collection capabilities of the PuMA devices deployed in a remote community. 

 The PuMA devices are fitted with SIM cards which use GCI wireless signals to send the data collected to the researchers at ACEP.

 The PuMA monitors the fuel consumption of fuel-oil vented heaters, such as the Toyostove and Monitor heaters, by using a sensor that clips onto the outside of the fuel pump. The PuMA data manager is attached to the outside of the heater and records data to calculate parameters such as fuel consumption and indoor temperature. In the future, there are plans in place to make the information available directly to the homeowner via a smart phone or computer-based app.

 The PuMA device may benefit individual homeowners in understanding their daily, seasonal, and annual heat loads. Tribal governments or electric utilities could use the device to collect residential heating data for designing a system of renewable energy with dispatchable loads. This device may also allow state organizations to create baseline heating data for energy efficiency programs.

Photo by Amanda Byrd/ACEP