Re: New paradigm for home heating automation and control

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Marc F Hult" <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in

> ROTFL. Top Dog Dave top posts and takes credit

Tsk, tsk.  Please don't be a master baiter.  You know better than to swat
the local
curmudgeon.  You're going to both have to share a new sobriquet:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0194883/

<stuff snipped>

> http://www.uky.edu/KGS/emsweb/co2/co2.html

"In 2002, Kentucky's coal-fired power plants emitted 87 million metric tons
of CO2 (seventh overall in the United States, EIA)."

Damn. That's a lot of CO2!

> 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?

> However dirty they may or may not be, coal and other pellet fuels are
legal
> (in most place in the US), available, practical and much, much cheaper
than
> energy sources from utilities, so -- as they say -- I'm 'conflicted' ;-)

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.

> The end is in sight for my hardwired lighting project. So the next
five-year
> HA effort might be to develop a HVAC system and overall energy strategy
that
> is low enough in cost so that I can afford to stay in the house when the
> price of petroleum-based fuels doubles and redoubles again.

You can count on that as long as petroleum production is cartel and not
market based.

> One of the next steps may be to build a mathematical energy budget model
of
> the house, as much for the challenge as for a tool for decision-making in
> design and operation. This might also be a good start in graduating from
an
> automated house to an autonomous house.

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."

--
Bobby G.