New Consumption Report
So I have finally had a chance to update the My Smart Home: Consumption Report to reflect readings from the new DENT PowerScout 18 meters and a new database design. Checkout:
http://makonin.com/report_consumption.html.
Related articles
- Branch Circuit Power Metering (eco-sustain.org)
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Home Occupancy Agent: Occupancy and Sleep Detection
Earlier this month I learnt that I (and co-author Fred Popowich) will have my first journal paper published in the GSTF Journal on Computing in the April/2012 edition (vol 2, no 1). Here is the paper abstract:
Smart homes of the future will have a number of different types of sensors. What types of sensors and how they will be used depends on the behaviour needed from the smart home. Using the sensors to automatically determine if a home is occupied can lead to a wide range of benefits. For example, it could trigger a change in the thermostat setting to save money, or even a change in security monitoring systems. Our prototype Home Occupancy Agent (HOA), which we present in this paper, uses a rule based system that monitors power consumption from meters and ambient light sensor readings in order to determine occupancy. The agent is also able to determine when the occupants are asleep, and thus provide the potential for further energy saving opportunities.
Keywords: Smart Home, Intelligent Agent, Occupancy Detection, Power Consumption, Ambient Light Sensors, Sleep Detection, Energy Conservation, Sustainability.
Keep your eyes peeled as there are a number of other submissions that I am either waiting on review or in the midst of writing. Write on…
Related articles
- The Affect of Lifestyle Factors on Eco-Visualization Design (eco-sustain.org)
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The Affect of Lifestyle Factors on Eco-Visualization Design
On Monday I learnt that my full co-authored (with Maryam H Kashani and Lyn Bartram) paper “The Affect of Lifestyle Factors on Eco-Visualization Design” was accepted at Computer Graphics International (CGI 2012). So I will be travelling to Bournemouth University in the UK. Here is the paper abstract:
As people become more concerned with the need to conserve their power consumption we need to find ways to inform them of how electricity is being consumed within the home. There are a number of devices that have been designed using different forms, sizes, and technologies. We are interested in large ambient displays that can be read at a glance and from a distance as informative art. However, from these objectives come a number of questions that need to be explored and answered. To what degree might lifestyle factors influence the design of eco-visualizations? To answer this we need to ask how people with varying lifestyle factors perceive the utility of such devices and their placement within a home. We explore these questions by creating four ambient display prototypes. We take our prototypes and subject them to a user study to gain insight as to the questions posed above. This paper discusses our prototypes in detail and the results and findings of our user study.
Keywords: eco-visualization, informative art, ambient display, power consumption, energy conservation, sustainability.
CGI 2012 received 178 papers, 111 were rejected, 35 were selected for the CGI 2012 Special Issue of The Visual Computer, 32 were selected for the Electronic Proceedings.
I will be updating the Elements of Consumption (EoC) project page soon. I plan to be releasing the project source code as an open source project along with details on how to create your own custom ambient display.
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Climate Delusions
Climate Delusions Talk
Today the Royal Society of Canada invited Dr. Mark Jaccard, Professor with the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University to talk about climate change modelling. He presented a very good talk about how and why we will not be meeting any of the emission reduction targets.
Abstract: Two decades of research into the risk of human-induced climate change has focused on climate science and the costs of greenhouse gas mitigation. It is increasingly obvious, however, that the research focus must include understanding the reasons why humans have been incapable of effective action in spite of scientific consensus on the climate threat, economic consensus on the relatively modest cost of mitigation, and continuous commitments by political leaders. This talk will combine science, economics, policy design and human cognition to explain how self-interest biases in human cognition have fostered delusions about the problem and its solution – and what to do about these.
Related articles
- Mark Jaccard calls out Stephen Harper on oil sands (deepclimate.org)
- A brief guide to the scientific consensus on climate change (dailykos.com)
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Branch Circuit Power Metering
Over the weekend I was busy replacing my 2 INO6200 meters with 2 DENT PowerScout 18 branch circuit power meters (BCPM). Instead on only monitoring 2 circuits (the main house and the heat pump), I can now monitor 24 different circuits!
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- PS18 Install – Open Panels
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- PS18 Install – Power Junction Box
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- PS18 Install – Finished Install
I will post a link to a real-time consumption report soon. I am having issue with my ModbusTCP server and a lack of time to program the report.
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- Why a Smart Meter Can be a Smart Investment (txu.com)
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Arduino RTC Shield Schematic
Arduino RTC Shield
I have now posted information on the Arduino Power Meter Reader (APMR) project page on how I created the Arduino RTC (Real Time Clock) Shield I used.
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Arduino RS485 Shield Schematic
Arduino RS485 Shield
Well I have been too busy with course work 
…but I found some time to post up the schematic for the Arduino RS485 Shield I used for my Arduino Power Meter Reader (APMR) project.
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Energy conservation drivers
I have been busy getting back in to course work for this fall; but I though it would be good to set up a poll to see what people think about what will drive energy conservation. Please contribute by taking my poll.
Related articles
- Bucks: Friday Reading: Embracing Energy Conservation (bucks.blogs.nytimes.com)
- Going Green: Energy Conservation During Record-Breaking Heat (blogsouthwest.com)
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Proliphix IMT550w thermostat installed
Today I finally installed my Proliphix IMT550w Network Thermostat. As you may have read in my earlier post, it was hard to find the right thermostat for my American Standard HVAC system, and it took me over 2 week to do an exhaustive search to find the IMT550. To review, I have a dual fuel system with a 2-stage heat pump and a 2-stage, variable speed gas furnace.
I spent the last couple of weeks figuring out how my HVAC system is wired. This took some time because there where a different amount of terminals with different labels (e.g. my system labels W2 as X2, and not needed). The colouring of the wires was also different. I cautiously documented the current wiring scheme and the new wiring scheme with my new IMT550w installed. I then talked to Proliphix Support and they worked with me to come up with the right wiring scheme. Proliphix has one of the best support departments. Mark, from Proliphix Support, was knowledgeable and responded quickly to all my emails–what more could I ask for. For those of you who are interested in seeing the before and after diagram of my HVAC wiring take a look at my HVAC Wiring Scheme document.
What I like about the IMT550w is:
- I can read and change setting from my browser, making it easier to set up schedules;
- I can install additional indoor temperature sensors, providing more comfort and energy efficiency;
- the temperature sensors that go with the thermostat (need to order separately) are more accurate than the ACONT802;
- the thermostat firmware can be updated with new functionality.
Related articles
- Installing mControl v3 (eco-sustain.org)
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Modelling the smart home, sensor data
Today David Lindberg a fellow graduate student and colleague ask, “I need a better picture of the data you’re receiving from the houses. Can you send me your database schema“? David will be looking at modelling tools and developing a model for the home. I though it might be a good idea to take some time and post what I have experienced and some of my opinions.
In my opinion, there are 2 basic data types that 99% of all sensors and actuators use (the other 1% in have not seen yet):
- a relay, like on/off, 1/0, yes/no, open/closed, or high/low;
- or, a setpoint, like a scale or discrete value (e.g. the temperature, the light level).
With sensors you can read these values and with actuators you can set these values. When it comes to reading sensors, there are 2 ways that sensors can be read, and this depends on the function of the sensor:
- continuous and periodic set interval, meters and environmental sensors (temperature, light) are typical examples of this;
- or, event triggered, PIR motion and door/window contacts are typical examples.
An example of how you can read sensors and set actuators would be to trigger a furnace to heat a room. You might place a temperature sensor in a room that is connected to micro-controller or MCU (e.g. an Arduino). The MCU would continuous read a discrete value from the temperature sensor, say once every second. The MCU could also be connected to the furnace (the actuator), say via a relay interface. We then program into the MCU the simple command, “when the temperature is under 21°C set the furnace relay to on, and when the temperature is over 21.5°C set the furnace relay to off”. Note: setting the furnace relay to on would turn the furnace on, and 21°C would be considered a setpoint.
Now if you wanted to store sensor data in a database the most basic table you could create that would store any kind of reading would be:
- the sensor name or ID, this is a unique value and a way to identify one sensor from another;
- the date and time of the reading, it is best to store this in UTC or GMT to avoid daylight savings time change issues;
- the periodic value, the amount since the last periodic reading;
- the instantaneous value, what the sensor’s reading is now.
So what is this periodic value, instantaneous value thing? When and how do I use them? Good questions, I am glad you asked! If we look at power meters, the periodic value would be the amount of Wh (watt-hours) used since the last reading and the instantaneous value would be in W (watts) for the current power level. With temperature sensors there would be no periodic value and the instantaneous value would be the current temperature (in °C, °F, or °K).
I may have more to add later…
