A beginner from Aitiv has found a solution to the problem of poorly ventilated rooms. How the smart air recuperator SmartRecu works

As the developer told dev.ua, the SmartRecu smart heat exchanger is currently presented in the form of an MVP. «The room had a high level of CO₂, which made it difficult to study and caused constant headaches — a typical problem for rooms with poor ventilation. The project helped not only solve this problem, but also gain valuable practical experience in developing a smart system,» shares Daniil.

The basic idea of ​​the design is as follows: two air flows move in parallel through a heat exchanger-radiator. It retains the heat of the room when fresh air comes in from the outside, and vice versa — does not release it to the street. «This project gave me the opportunity to combine knowledge from different areas — from working with microcontrollers and sensors to creating a backend, API and frontend with real control in the browser. I saw that I could quickly scale in new technologies and bring the idea to a finished product,» the developer said.

SmartRecu has the following features:

• automatic and manual operating modes;
• maximum speed mode with timer (20 seconds);
• start/stop and speed control in manual mode;
• web interface with analytics (CO₂, humidity, internal and external temperature) in the form of graphs.

According to him, the project lasted about three months, and it was a complex process: from research and development of drawings for the laser machine to assembling the device and configuring the sensors. The software part, that is, the code itself, took about 40 hours — this is where I implemented the logic of the device, the API and the web interface for remote control.

«As a full-stack developer, I am currently developing in this direction, so for me this project was a great opportunity to combine hardware and web development: to create a full-fledged interface, establish communication between devices and APIs, and also create a working product from scratch,» says Serafin.

The cost of the project was about 3,000 UAH — most of the money went to the radiator, housing, CO₂ sensor and fans. The device’s capacity is 90 cubic meters of air per hour.

«The testing showed positive results, even considering the limited air throughput. It is not currently being used because it needs to be integrated into the premises, but I will resolve this issue in the coming month,» said Daniil.

In the future, he plans to develop the project: conduct more detailed testing, improve the code, add new functionality. «I am also open to cooperation and would really like to delve deeper into this direction,» the guy noted.

«This was not just an educational experiment for me, but a real challenge: ESP32-S3 as the basis of the system; Express.js + SQL database for the backend; React (PWA) for the frontend; real-time interaction via WebSocket; API raised on the host, which allows you to control the device from anywhere in the world and combines the hardware and frontend; a set of sensors: CO₂, an external temperature thermistor, humidity; two 4-pin fans with flexible control,» says Daniil.

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