Live View

My green home upgrade continues with the addition of a product from a company name The Energy Detective called TED 5000. Basically this is a meter that let’s me keep an eye on energy usage with both the feed from Xcelenergy (the power company here) and my solar panels. It’s something only a guy could love (the geeky graphs and huge amounts of data), but on the side, also lets me know, down to the watt, what each device in the house is using.  I’ve attached a couple more “sample pictures” after the break below.

It has a “live mode” (the picture on the left) where I can watch real time as I turn on things like:

• TV (100-600 watts, depending on if it’s displaying a predominantly black or white screen)
• Clothes Dryer (a scary 6,300+ watts)
• Oven (2,500 watts) and burners (2,800 watts each) [which explains why I don't cook!]
• The furnace (1,100 watts for the blower motor) [which explains why I keep the house at 64 degrees day, and 55 night]

I haven’t gone around measuring everything yet, but may do something like that over the long weekend. I’m really curious how much energy all the little power bricks I have for all the little devices take. I’m betting it’s going to be a surprising number.

The company still has some work to do on the software that comes with the product (quite a few minor bugs, and a couple major ones (like mis-labeling outputs on graphs). The appear totally overwhelmed by the popularity of their products, and are trying to ramp up support, but they’re not there yet. Be prepared to be “on your own” for a while. But, for the most part, it works OK, and provides information I simply didn’t have before.

Show me more… »

Categories: Geek Toys, Green, Hardware
No Comments »

Panels from the North East

I finally made the decision to jump into some home improvements, one of which is putting a Solar PV array (Photo-voltaic) on the roof. I’m not home enough to benefit from solar heating, but I thought it would be interesting to see if I can end up with zero electricity bills at the end of each year.

Ali, a friend of mine, works at Conergy (a world-wide solar wholesale/distributor) and recommended that I talk to Bella Energy, an local installer who they work with often. I contacted Bella, and ended up purchasing a system from them (contact me for a reference if you’re interested).

For an east-facing roof (mine faces due east), I should expect to get about 77% of the efficiency of a south facing roof, which really surprised me. Apparently the panels work much better when cold (in the morning) than when warm (west-facing in the afternoon).

The market is getting a little crazy, what with rebates from the local electric company, and the recently changed law that gives you a 30% tax credit (of course, you pay income tax on the tax credit) so it’s really more like a 20% credit. The net cost to the consumer, after the rebate and the credit, is only about 30% of the price of the system. Given my “history” of electricity usage, I should be able to pay for the system in about 8-10 years, and that’s if the price of electricity doesn’t change at all (yeah, right).

The installers came out and had the whole thing installed in under 3 days, but won’t actually “hook it up” until after the first of the year, so that I can get the new tax credit (it went from a $2,000 credit to a 30% credit). The city will be doing their inspection soon, Xcelenergy will come install a “reversable electric meter”, and then we’ll fire up the whole thing in January. Below the break are some pictures of what it looks like, and a more detailed description of “what” was installed.

[edited on 11/24/2008] – I added some photos from the neighbors roof today.

Show me more… »

Tags: bella energy,conergy,photo-voltaic,pv,solar,solar array
Categories: Green, Hardware
No Comments »

November 2006

I’ve been running X10 type devices in my house since the early 80′s, having graduated from simple controllers to a CP-290 (programmed from an old Macintosh SE using “MouseHouse”). I’m now running Indigo 2 software on my Macintosh G5 Desktop plugged into a PowerLinc USB connection. Given the amount that I travel, I have embedded motion sensors and email notification to my cell phone, as well as other “security features” wrapped in and around Indigo.

I also use it to control the HVAC system, although I’m much more careful when I plan my programming and triggers now. I made a simple “programming” mistake a couple years back that ended up turning my AC system in to a giant ice-maker and burning out a blower motor….

All in all, it’s a great system that just proves there’s a geek in all of us. OK, well, in some of us…

Categories: Software
No Comments »

First Impressions, December 2006
This is my latest navigational hardware (aka toy) for work (and a little play). I’ve used a handheld eTrex Vista and a Quest in the car. My comments will be a little biased due to the features I have (and love) on the Quest.

Right off the bat, let me point out that I love the “functionality” of the Quest. I like the fact that I can change all of the display information on any of the screens to whatever I feel like seeing (like altitude, arrival time, next turn time, etc).

To be fair, I did NOT pay money for this NUVI, I used points from a hotel program. So my “disappointments” will be tempered by the fact that I don’t feel the loss of value (see the negative section) as much as if I had paid $$$ for it.

Show me more… »

Categories: Hardware
No Comments »

November 2006

For years now, I’ve carried a PowerBook and a Dell C400 notebook in my bag when I travel (which I do a LOT). Almost all the sites I work on are either Windows or Unix sites. I’ve used the Dell with VMWare Desktop and an external hard drive to build “virtual machines” for each client site, which allowed me to set up each machine exactly the way the client environment looked, and prevent them from conflicting with each other.

Now, with Parallels, I’m doing the same thing on my MacBook Pro C2D and have given up the C400 (and all the extra gear) completely. The best part? My backpack is about 10 pounds lighter!

Although the initial versions of Parallels were a little buggy, and couldn’t do everything I needed, later versions have been getting much better, and with the latest build (release 2.5 build 3188), I no longer have any complaints.

And… The best part? I can run 2 or 3 Windows machines side-by-side at the same time, and each one is considerably faster than my old C400. I typically only run one at a time, but occasionally have a need to run one Windows 2000 machine hosting an Oracle 10g database, and another running a CM product called Harvest.

Categories: Software
No Comments »