Re: New paradigm for home heating automation and control

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

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

> >> 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 :-)

That was when Generalísimo Francisco Franco wasn't "still dead" as SNL was
so fond of saying.

> >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 ;-)

The problem is that kind of recovery effort is almost never worthwhile on a
small scale.  Single homes burning coal pellets or something similar will
put out a lot more particulate, in aggregate, than a larger plant putting
out an equivalent amount of total power.  But making homes that are not
single heating fuel dependent is probably going to be a thriving industry
for a little while, at least.

> >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.

That's an interesting place to start.  I've deployed a number of wireless
thermometers in various parts of the house to study the temperature patterns
but I want to switch to something far more automatic.  What will you be
using to monitor temperatures throughout the house?  Any thoughts to measure
air flow or infiltration?

> 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.

That books makes intelligent design seem highly credible!

> Lottsa ideas that seem new aren't ...

I saw an SD card that can fold itself into a USB plug today.  That's new, at
least!

Have you gotten your MUX on line yet?

--
Bobby G.