simpy
simpy
Watch mshook
Energy expert Paul Scheckel and Kevin discussed ways to monitor energy usage around the house. The whole-house electrical monitoring system that uses the internet to provide a "dashboard" showing electrical usage is manufactured by: eMonitor by PowerHouse Dynamics
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(defprocess root (fuzziness)
(defvariable blobs #’union)
(always
(when (eq (read-sensor ’image) ’black)
(subprocess (measure-blob) :gradient fuzziness)
(setf blobs
(list (get-from-sub (measure-blob) blob)))))
(avoid
(read-sensor ’query)
(let ((q (first (read-sensor ’query))))
(cond
((eq q ’blobs)
(actuate ’response (regional blobs)))
((eq q ’area)
(actuate ’response
(fold #’+ (mapcar #’second
(regional blobs)))))))))
(defprocess measure-blob ()
(defvariable uid #’max :atomic :base 0 :init (random 1))
(defvariable area #’sum :reduction :base 0 :init 1)
(defvariable blob :local)
(always
(setf blob (list uid area))))
Code to find a set of fuzzy blobs and their areas in a binary image. Each contiguous black area of the image runs a connected measure-blob pro- cess that names it and calculates its area. The set of blobs is collected by the root process and made accessible to the user on the response actuator...
concur with Lu’s findings. Since projecting our electricity usage in real time on the web, in an easily readable, annotated visualization format, it’s become very clear to us both when the peaks in our usage occur, and what is causing them, without sweating the small stuff. The simple visualization of high-energy devices - dryers, dishwashers - seems, from a simple behavioral modification standpoint, to get the job done. Appliance-based monitoring systems, furthermore, inject a complexity that means they’ll take awhile to achieve ubiquity. Although we yearn for a future in which all appliances are “smart,” the number of smart plugs, smart sockets, and upgraded appliances that would need to be integrated into our households to make an appliance-based system effective, as well as the data gaps that would accompany a necessarily piecemeal application, make the idea of a whole-house, appliance-based monitoring system seem, to us, a misplaced focus right now.
