 Artificial Intelligence (3)
You've probably wondered what these chapters on AI are doing here in a book about heat pumps, solar power, and electric cars. The explanation comes only now, because here we want to show just how
much ChatGPT has already helped right since the bidding process.
At first, the question was what we had actually won at auction. The AI informed us that it was only the outer unit. The interior was still missing the hydraulic/control unit, the wired controller, and the hydraulic
components.
It was clear from the start that we would be able to continue using the hot-water tank. This also applied to the expansion tank, which had been replaced not too long ago. In addition, the AI gave us a boost of
confidence as soon as the device up for auction was mentioned.
At first, the AI and we still took the approach of keeping the gas heating system running despite the new heat pump. And as always, we had ChatGPT on our side. But from the very beginning, it had
doubts about whether the gas heating control system would actually work.
It helped a great deal that the AI gathered all kinds of information about the missing control kit, and it slowly dawned on us that a heat pump couldn't simply be turned on and off from the computer of a
Buderus gas heating system.
It was striking how readily ChatGPT adapted to the idea of potentially operating this system via the Buderus wall-mounted control panel as well. In the end, however, it all turned out to be an unworkable
approach. Not even the circulation pump for the gas heating system will remain.
The AI even went so far as to shut itself down when we came up with the idea of using the gas heater's control system to turn off just the burner. No, ChatGPT flatly rejected such a solution for security
reasons.
After all, we would have had to outsmart the gas flame monitoring system, and what if a fault in our makeshift setup allowed the gas to flow but the monitoring system failed to detect it? Way too
dangerous, the AI was absolutely right.
It was also a huge help with the pump. Yes, it is a hydraulically controlled pump, and it can still be used as is, but as far as the heat pump is concerned, it could not have been controlled via pulse-width
modulation. That would have been a loss we weren't willing to accept.
Pumps like these start at around €300. With the help of AI, I managed to snag a used unit with the electronics for a little more than half that price. We had to give up quite a few of our original ideas, but the
AI was there every step of the way, keeping an eye on things.
Ultimately, as already mentioned, we even bought the internal circuit board from England on eBay in this case and had ChatGPT compare a photo of it with the original, as well as with the new wall-mounted
unit from Samsung.
Even the new idea, namely, removing the heating unit from the gas furnace and then temporarily connecting it to the heat pump to get through the first winter without gas heating, has been discussed with
ChatGPT. Let's see if it works.
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