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.
Related articles
- Energy and Water Meters Installed (gcgreen.wordpress.com)
- 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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- Tracking satellites with an Arduino (hackaday.com)
- Building an Arduino LCD Clock with Adafruit gear (adafruit.com)
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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- Arduino (For beginners) (circuitstoday.com)
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- Arduino (dmohankumar.wordpress.com)
- Shrinkify your Arduino project (electronics-lab.com)
The Queen of Green @ BCIT
The Queen of Green
Last Thursday (October 27th) Lindsay Coulter, David Suzuki‘s Queen of Green spoke at BCIT. She presented discussion and tips on how to turn a home into a healthy and sustainable environment. Some of her tips include:
- avoid canned foods, the can contains a BPA lining;
- if you want people in the office to throw out less garbage, label the garbage can “landfill”;
- the “Christmas shrimp ring” is one of the worst things to eat this holiday season;
- when buying products think of their “end of life” , e.g. silicon (currently) cannot be recycled;
- and there was so much more (you had to be there).
Some tips I already new about, but others where an eye opener. She also talked about the benefits of forest bathing, and idea that came out of Japan.
On another note: David Suzuki just finished airing an interesting 3 part series on nano technology on CBC. You should check out The Nano Revolution: Will Nano Save the Planet? Part 3 talks about how nano technology has the potential to clean up the environmental mess we have created.
Related articles
- BCIT- Big Info Session Nov 2 (tamanawisgtp.wordpress.com)
- Forest Bathing (marksdailyapple.com)
Are we just a bunch of ecopaths?
A picture of William Deverell, Stephen Makonin, and Buzz Holling (from left to right)
Last night I was privileged to be invited to a dialog sponsored by SFUs Burnaby Mountain College called Are We Just a Bunch of Ecopaths? A Dialogue on Our Environmental Paradox. William Deverell (famous author) and Buzz Holling (eco-complexity scientist) were the honourary guess. Elisibeth May (Green Party Leader) was also invited but could not attend. Burnaby Mountain College is a project that brings together visiting scholars, postdocs and graduate students from all the different SFU schools in to on common place for discussion and debate. This interdisciplinary forum allows for the exchange of ideas and for graduate students to meet others outside their own school.
It was very inspiring hearing Bill and Buzz talk about how we are living in a paradox. A very interesting discussion point postulated on the idea of “media fair and equal coverage”, this has caused special interest groups to refute scientific fact without any credible evidence. Bill approached his work with passion and activism while Buzz uses his sense of calm curiosity. Both gentlemen have different approaches to their work but have the same goal; change the attitudes of people so that our planet can sustain human and other species, not just this generation but all future generations. The discussion and exchange of ideas was broad, but all were connected.
I did a search for the definition of “echpath” on the web. Urban Dictionary came up with two definitions:
- A person so obsessed with “environmentalism” and “being green” that they deem any sort of infraction against their misguided mindset as the ultimate sin. Possessed of a gigantic “holier than thou” attitude. Were this type of person given a choice between cutting down a tree and strangling a newborn baby…well, sorry baby!
- Someone who uses the environment in a destructive fashion purely for their own gratification without regard for the common good of life on earth. These people have no sense of remorse or guilt or remorse about their destructive impact on the environment. Ecopathism is a personality disorder much like sociopathism.
It is interesting that there would be these two contrary definition… perhaps here lies part of the paradox…
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)
- eeS Group explores Energy Efficiency vs. Energy Conservation (ees2001.wordpress.com)
