Alternative way to be testing command line if port is open or closed

Trying to find out on a Linux server or under Busybox (Synology) if a TCP port is open or closed? Use this handy command:

exec 6<>/dev/tcp/127.0.0.1/443 || echo "Port is not open"
exec 6>&- # close output connection
exec 6<&- # close input connection

6 is used as the file descriptor. 0,1,2 are stdin, stdout, and stderr. 5 is sometimes used by Bash for child processes, so 3,4,6,7,8, and 9 should be safe.

Alternatively, if the port you're probing is serving the HTTP(S) protocol:

exec 6<>/dev/tcp/127.0.0.1/443
echo -e "GET / HTTP/1.0\n" >&6
cat <&6

Alternative ways are listed here.

Testing a basic Zwave setup for the first time

I have myself ordered a Zwave.me USB stick and an Aeotec MultiSensor 6 to start building my sensor network at home. There are a few tools out there to get you started with Zwave on a Raspberry Pi, or see my howto. But the issue I had was that I was not able to see the technical configuration of my hardware devices. There is a script called api_help.py that comes with the python_openzwave library, that I have slightly modified so that it prints the useful information in a friendly way.

Output:

pi@raspberrypi:~/git/python_openzwave $ python3 api_demo.py
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
Memory use : 14.61328125 Mo
INFO:openzwave:Start Openzwave network.
------------------------------------------------------------
Waiting for network awaked :
------------------------------------------------------------
.INFO:openzwave:Driver ready using library Static Controller version Z-Wave 4.05
INFO:openzwave:home_id 0x00000000, controller node id is 1
......... done
------------------------------------------------------------
Memory use : 15.96484375 Mo
------------------------------------------------------------
Use openzwave library : 1.4.2272
Use python library : 0.3.1
Use ZWave library : Static Controller version Z-Wave 4.05
Network home id : 0x00000000
Controller node id : 1
Controller node version : 4
Nodes in network : 2
------------------------------------------------------------
Waiting for network ready :
------------------------------------------------------------
 done in 10 seconds
Memory use : 15.96484375 Mo
------------------------------------------------------------
Controller capabilities : {'primaryController'}
Controller node capabilities :
{'primaryController', 'listening', 'beaming'}
Nodes in network : 2
Driver statistics :
{   'ACKCnt': 22,
    'ACKWaiting': 3,
    'CANCnt': 3,
    'NAKCnt': 0,
    'OOFCnt': 0,
    'SOFCnt': 44,
    'badChecksum': 0,
    'badroutes': 0,
    'broadcastReadCnt': 0,
    'broadcastWriteCnt': 12,
    'callbacks': 0,
    'dropped': 0,
    'netbusy': 0,
    'noack': 0,
    'nondelivery': 0,
    'readAborts': 0,
    'readCnt': 44,
    'retries': 3,
    'routedbusy': 0,
    'writeCnt': 25}
------------------------------------------------------------
New node: Node 1
   ---------
Node 1 - Name :
Node 1 - Manufacturer name / id : Z-Wave.Me / 0x0115
Node 1 - Product name / id / type : ZME_UZB1 USB Stick / 0x0001 / 0x0400
Node 1 - Version : 4
Node 1 - Command classes :
{'COMMAND_CLASS_NO_OPERATION', 'COMMAND_CLASS_BASIC'}
Node 1 - Capabilities : {'primaryController', 'listening', 'beaming'}
Node 1 - Neigbors : {2}

Effect of disinfection function on Daikin heat pump

Our heat pump has functionality to disinfect the boiler (hot water tank) on a weekly schedule. I wanted to understand how much energy this consumes and how long this takes.

Test setup

• Daikin heat pump
• By default our hot tap water in the tank is set to 45 degrees Celsius
• Energy meters:
• 1 main meter for the overall house consumption (red graph)
• 2 sub meters measuring for the heat pump installation (1) the outdoor heat exchanger and (2) the indoor boiler. (yellow and blue graphs)
• Heat pump user interface with Advanced user enabled
• The test was done mid-October with an average outside temperature of 7 degrees Celsius

Test background

The disinfection was scheduled to start at 19:00 and the disinfection temperature was set to 60 degrees for a duration of 40 minutes. All of these parameters can be edited through the installer settings.

Test results

The graph clearly shows that the outdoor unit consumes energy (between 2300 and 1700W) first to start heating the incoming water up to 60 degrees from 19:00 until 19:40. From 19:34 onwards, the boiler itself consumes energy (4100W down to 3000W) to further heat the water inside the boiler up to 60 degrees Celsius until 20:18.

Summary

The heat pump consumes on an average 5-7kWh per disinfection that lasts roughly 80-90 minutes. The total estimated consumption per year is in between 250-350kWh.