Design and Implementation of Automatic Room Temperature

Controlled Fan using Arduino Uno and LM35 Heat Sensor

Nur Afiqah Junizan, Amirrudin Abdul Razak, Bohendiran Balakrishnan, W.A.F.W. Othman*
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang,
Malaysia

*
Corresponding E-mail: wafw_othman@usm.my

Abstract— Most human feels the inconvenient about changing the fan speed level manually when the
room’s temperature changed. So, the automatic fan system that automatically changes the speed level
according to temperature changes is recommended to be built for solving this problem. Hence, the
objectives for this project are to enable the electric fan to automatically change the speed level according
to temperature changes and develop an automatic fan system that can change the speed level due to the
environment temperature changes. This project presents the designs and the simulation of a DC fan control
system based on room temperature using pulse width modulation technique and temperature sensor
namely LM35 with Arduino Uno Microcontroller. The fan will be used to reduce the temperature of a
room at certain level. To build the fan, we use LM35 heat sensor. The sensor will measure the room
temperature continuously. When the room temperature sensed by the sensor crossed the threshold, value
fan is switched on; the LED will be turn on. The fan will remain on till the temperature reduces below the
threshold value. This general idea is used in this project.

Keywords— Arduino uno; LM35; automated fan; temperature controlled

and by controlling the speed controller, there is no

I. INTRODUCTION
With the advancement of technology, intelligent
system is introduced every day. Everything is
getting sophisticated day by day. There is an
increase demand of technology and smart
electronic system. Electric fan is one of the most
popular electronic devices due to its cost
effectiveness and low power consumption
advantages. It is one of the most sensible to offer a
comfortable and energy efficient. The fan has been
long used and still available in the market.
Demand for the accurate temperature control
has conquered many of industrial domains.
Automatic temperature control is important in
order to maintain a comfortable environment.
Automation system aims to further the cause of
automation to achieve the goal of simplicity. In
primitive way of using a fan by button the switch
chance that the temperature can change the speed
of fan except changing the speed of fan by
manually. So, it is needed to create an automatic
temperature control system the electric fan to
automatically change the speed level according to
temperature changes and develop an automatic fan
system that can change the speed level due to the
environment temperature changes.
Automatic temperature-controlled fan leverages
the power of Arduino to provide an automation
control system of fan which speed is controlled by
measuring temperature by itself. Using Arduino,
motor, jumper wires, sensors and other hardware
the fan measure the surrounding temperature and
on depending that control the speed of fan
automatically. It is one practical use is to integrate
a microcontroller in a temperature control system
that can be used for automatically controlling a

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 International Journal of Engineering Creativity and Innovation, 2019, 1 (2), 8-14
room temperature by controlling the fan’s speed
automatically.
Furthermore, a short introductory video of this
work has been uploaded to the YouTube with the
link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZL_LcM6D
dI.
II.RELATED WORKS
In recent years the energy crisis has become
main problem which the whole world must
confront. Home power consumption makes up the
largest part of energy consumption in the world.
This is to be found that the automation is the use
of control systems and information technologies to
reduce the need for human work in the production
of goods and services. Home automation is a
widely used automated system. There is an
approach to control the electrical and electronic
home appliances according to the attendance of
persons [1-2].
Implementation of the ATmega8L
microcontroller for Speed control of DC motor fed
by a DC chopper has been investigated. The
chopper is driven by a high frequency PWM
signal. Controlling the PWM duty cycle is
equivalent to controlling the motor terminal
voltage, which in turn adjusts directly the motor
speed [3-4]. The design and simulation of a novel
fan speed control system based on room
temperature using Pulse Width Modulation
Technique. The duty cycle is made to vary
according to the room temperature and the fan
speed is controlled accordingly [5].
III. METHODOLOGY
In this work, Arduino Uno is used. There are
many works reported to use Arduino
microcontroller, such as in the field of robotics [6-
23], and mini-projects [24~26]. The
microcontroller has been programmed using C and
C# language according to the designed features
and is loaded to Arduino Uno. Speed control of
the DC motor is using PWM signal which requires
manipulation the pulses’ width. The system has
been designed to configure temperature sensor.
Temperature sensor senses the temperature of a
room and it gives the microcontroller signal. The
speed of fan will increase if the temperature of the
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room is high and the light will turn on and
decrease if the temperature of the room is low and
the light will turn off.
Fig. 1 shows the block diagram of fan speed
control system. The Arduino Uno is the heart of
the system. It accepts inputs from the temperature
sensor, LM35 which employed to sense the
temperature of the surrounding. The output of the
temperature sensor (analogue signal) is fed to the
input of the ADC, which converts the analogue
temperature value to digital equivalent required by
the micro-controller. Thus, the output of the ADC
is directly coupled to the microcontroller whose
main task is to control / regulate the Fan speed via
the actuators.
Overall of this project is all about controlling
the fan by sensing the surrounding temperature,
whereby the sensor will detect the temperature and
send to the microcontroller. The output from the
microcontroller will control the fan speed via
actuators. This work also can turn on the fan
manually with the speed fan desired without using
temperature sensor.
The circuit presents the design and control of
automatic switching electric fan. The idea is based
on the problem occurs in human’s life nowadays
by improving the existing technology. The work is
based on microcontroller board design, produced
by several vendors using various microcontrollers.
These systems provide sets of digital and analog
input/output (I/O) pins that can interface with
various expansion boards and other circuits.
The board features a serial communication
interface or a universal serial bus (USB) on some
models, for loading program from personal
computers to program the microcontrollers. The
Arduino project provides an integrated
development environment (IDE) based on both the
C and C# languages. In this work, it was used to
program the microcontroller on what to do at a
certain temperature. First, we devised a schematic
diagram (as shows in Fig. 2) that would control a
fan to operate at 3 different speeds. The speed
would be controlled by the microcontroller by
sending out a +5V signal through a network of
transistors which would result at turning on the fan
at a particular speed.
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 International Journal of Engineering Creativity and Innovation, 2019, 1 (2), 8-14

Figure 1: Block diagram of fan speed control system

The system measures the temperature from the
Integrated Circuit (IC) LM35, where it will control
the fan according to the setting values in the
programming. The temperature sensor LM35 is
employed to sense the temperature from
surrounding. It produces voltage of 10mV for 1°C
rise in temperature. The output of the temperature
sensor (analogue signal) is fed to the input of the
ADC, which converts the analogue temperature
value to digital equivalent required by the micro-
controller. Thus, the output of the ADC is directly
coupled to the microcontroller whose main task is
to control and regulates the fan speed via the
actuators.
Fig. 2 shows the schematic diagram of the
proposed system, whereby the battery, toggle
switch; motor DC and NPN transistor is connected
in series. Pin 2 (Base) of the NPN transistor is
connected to Pin 2 of Arduino Uno. Pin 2 can be
configured to trigger an interrupt on a low value, a
rising or falling edge, or a change in value.
Meanwhile, LM35 is connected to the Arduino
Uno. Pin 3 of LM35 is connected to GDN. Pin 1
of LM35 is connected to pin A0 and pin 2 is
connected to 5V. Three LED are connected to pin
4, 5 and 6 respectively, series with a resistor of
each LED. The others toggle switch whereby SW2
are connected parallel to pin A1 and SW3
connected parallel with pin A2 to the Arduino Uno.
Fig. 3 depicts the flowchart of the overall
system. At first, when the fan is turn on manually,
user can choose either low or medium speed of the
fan. The fan will rotate at medium speed and the
program will turn off all the speed of LED and the
medium speed LED will light up if the user
chooses for medium speed. The flow program
when we choose the low speed will be same just
like when we choose the medium speed. Just the
differences are that the fans are rotating at low
speed and low speed LED will light up.
When the fan is automatically on, it will detect
surrounding temperature. The fan will detect either
the temperature is higher than 28℃ or lower than
28 ℃ . If the temperature below than 28 ℃ is
detected, the fan will stop, and the all the speed
LEDs will turn off. Meanwhile, when the
temperature is higher than 28℃, the sensor will
compare with at a certain temperature to set the
level of fan speed. When the compared

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 International Journal of Engineering Creativity and Innovation, 2019, 1 (2), 8-14
Figure 2: Schematic Diagram of the proposed system
temperature is higher than 32℃, the speed of fan
will set to high, meanwhile when the compared
temperature is between 30℃ & 32℃, the speed of
fan will set to medium and the speed of the fan is
low if the compared temperature is between 28℃
&30℃. The speed of fan will rotate depends on
the temperature that are detected. The LED will
turn on when the fan are in low, medium or in the
high speed. All LEDs will turn off except the LED
that is programmed will light up depending on the
specific condition.
IV. RESULT
Accuracy is one of the major criteria in
innovating or creating a new product. In our work,
the accuracy needed to accomplish a good product
was to be able to measure the temperature as
accurate as possible. The sensor we have used is
accurate and the maximum deviation is only ± 0.5
degree Celsius.
Sensitivity is almost closely related to accuracy.
Sensitivity is how fast it can react to changes in its
surrounding. In this work, the sensitivity level is
the measurement on how quick the proposed
system reacts to changes in its surrounding
temperature. The sensor that we have used which
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is the heat sensor has a sensitivity range of ± 0.5
degree Celsius. It operates at a range of –55
degree Celsius to a 150-degree Celsius range.
Repeatability is where the system can get the
same reading for the same condition multiple
times. We have achieved such level in our product.
We were able to get constant readings for the same
conditions.
This work is also promoting energy saving.
Normally, for USB fan, it has an average of 2.5W
power consumption and a total power usage of
0.02 kWh from 10pm – 6am. Our fan, if used for
the same period, can save energy, electricity and
money.
For example, the average temperature in Penang,
Malaysia, from: 10pm – 12am is ± 29°C; 12am –
2am is ± 28°C; 2am – 6am is between 24-27°C.
Therefore, the average power consumption of the
proposed system is: ± 2.3W for 10pm – 12am; ±
2.1W for 12am – 2am; 0W from 2am – 6am.
Yields, the total power consumption is only
0.0088kWh.
The pulse width modulation speed control
function is a function that externally controls the
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 International Journal of Engineering Creativity and Innovation, 2019, 1 (2), 8-14

Figure 3: Flowchart of the proposed system

rotation speed of the fan by changing the duty
cycle of the input pulse signal.
V. DISCUSSION
After designing, assembling and testing the
circuit, we concluded that the circuit of the
proposed temperature-based fan speed controller is
working satisfactorily. The logic used in the
system is verified and shown in the flowchart form.
The duty cycle is varied according to room
temperature and speed of the fan is controlled
accordingly.
temperature. Then, the work implements a closed
loop type control system for automatically
adjusting the temperature closed loop type control
system is more efficient than an open loop system
as the output is continuously monitored as
feedback.
There is also the disadvantage for this work that
is micro controller is the heart of the circuit, if
controller is damaged the whole system will be
spoiled and speed control is dependent of
individual preference.

The advantage of this system is that it is very VI. CONCLUSION

economical and easy to handle by the user; speed
varies automatically, so that it controls the speed
without having to move a limb.
Next, it is helpful to disabled person, it is very
easy to install in offices, and houses etc., and save
energy by slowing down its speed in low
We have achieved our entire objective
successfully. The program is running without any
error. The presented work will detect the
temperature of room by LM35 sensor and control
the fan speed. This work has showed a means of
controlling the temperature of a system. This
system helps to maintain the temperature within a

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 International Journal of Engineering Creativity and Innovation, 2019, 1 (2), 8-14
range. This system is marketable because of its
simplicity, low cost, low power consumption and
small.
Nowadays, these types of circuits can be used in
large farms and in many places where we can
measure the current temperature and to maintain
the surrounding temperature according to the
user’s decision. We can use in a wide variety of
applications such as poultry farm, industries
thermal furnace, boiler medical application and in
all temperature controlling areas.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
All authors have disclosed no conflicts of
interest, and authors would like to thank the
Universiti Sains Malaysia for supported the work
by Research University Grant Scheme (Grant
number: 1001/PELECT/8014113).
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