Re: New paradigm for home heating automation and control

[Marc F Hult <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 29 Dec 2005 18:12:16 GMT, Marc F Hult <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote in message  <0o98r1pmpe557ieorj0rbq7bm3i3h889h2@xxxxxxx>:

>On Sat, 24 Dec 2005 14:05:44 -0500, "Robert Green"
><ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
><Y6OdnevX1qcpATDe4p2dnA@xxxxxxx>:
>
>>"Marc F Hult" <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
>
>>> The use of pellet-like fuel for residential heating is not a new idea.
>>> Forty  years ago I lived in an apartment in Spain that heated by a
system
>>> that fed almond shells from an electrically operated  hopper to the
>>> firebox to heat  the boiler. No X-10 though ... ;-)
>>
>>What happened to the ashes?
>
>There isn't much ash compared to coal. We also used coals from almond
shells
>in a copper brassier that was put under a round table with a wool blanket
on
>top. Four or five people could sit around the table at once keeping their
>feet (if nothing else ;-) toasty warm. Very traditional. Very efficient.
>Very social. All gone .. :-(  No X-10 involved :-)
>
>>I assume adding ways to control fly ash and other particulate matter
brings
>>that pellet fuel cost up, were an homeowner to go that route and seek to
>>minimize pollutant outputs.
>
>Last year I toured the plant of a major manufacturer of wallboard
>("sheetrock") located near my house on the Ohio river. The supply of
>synthetic gypsum for the wallboard is provided entirely by sludge from
>sulfur-dioxide scrubbers on the very same coal-fired power plants, also on
>the Ohio river, that provide the electricity to my house. This is about
>2,000,000,000 pounds per year of waste that doesn't need to go to
landfills,
>but, rather, can become a physical part of my next energy-saving
>re-insulation project ;-)
>
>>HAL of 2001?
>>
>>Home: "Marc, I'm afraid I can't let you back into the house."
>>
>>Marc: "Why not?"
>>
>>Home: "Your random activity patterns make it impossible for me to operate
>>at peak energy efficiency.  Calculations show that with you locked out, I
>>can reach optimum efficiency levels."
>
>I just built and installed a 1.5 x 3-foot aluminum and glass enclosure for
>the solar cells that have been sitting in my 'junk box' for ~15 years. The
>intent is to develop an entirely self-sufficient, low-power HA system
>starting with environmental monitoring.
>
>So HAL might run for a long time unless some black substance were to fall
>over the earth blotting out the solar radiation to the solar cells (and >
>thus HAL's power supply). FWIW, this is a scenario (Black Gook Covers
>Earth) that I was asked to evaluate, chalk in hand, during my PhD candidacy
>oral exam 40 years ago ;-) The premise in turn was probably stimulated by
>the interesting nonsense in the 1950's book by Velikovsky
>_Worlds_In_Collision.
>
>Lottsa ideas that seem new aren't ...

and lottsa typos made when I go too fast ;-) Make that "30 years ago".

(How time flies when you're having fun !) ... Marc

Marc_F_Hult
www.ECOntrol.org