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Smart homes

Does what it says on the tin
dspp
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Smart homes

#175699

Postby dspp » October 23rd, 2018, 10:03 am

Some interesting points on this smart home blog
https://www.machinon.com/blog/adding-va ... smart-home

that chime with my own thoughts.

regard, dspp

bungeejumper
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Re: Smart homes

#175812

Postby bungeejumper » October 23rd, 2018, 5:33 pm

I was three quarters of the way through this blog before the blindingly obvious hit me.

He rattles on and on about how he's 'improved' his house by installing 500 or more automated gizmos of one sort or another, and how he's starting to be worried about how much time he spends repairing it and resetting stuff whenever things go out go synch or fail for some other reason. And then he frets that he might have made it difficult ever to sell his house, because he's the only one who knows how it works?

But at no point, unless I've missed it, does he refer to what the rest of his family think about the house. Indeed, I don't think he mentions having a family at all. Or a "significant other" of any kind. The poor saddo has become a full-time concierge to his own hyper-complicated house, to the point where keeping it running is his sole obsession.

Of course, I suppose it's possible that his family simply ran away from home? Or maybe his wife is still locked in the upstairs lavatory, pleading uselessly with Hal to open the door? ;)

BJ

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Re: Smart homes

#175850

Postby stewamax » October 23rd, 2018, 8:13 pm

Hmm. He doesn't say what happens when there is a power cut. Does he have battery backup for all critical devices, or perhaps even backup for the entire house. And does he have a generator that automatically cuts in when the battery backup runs out?

Maybe there is an opportunity for those with electric cars: if mains power fails, put the charger in reverse and let the car power the house!

AleisterCrowley
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Re: Smart homes

#175859

Postby AleisterCrowley » October 23rd, 2018, 9:19 pm


dspp
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Re: Smart homes

#186035

Postby dspp » December 10th, 2018, 7:14 pm


chas49
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Re: Smart homes

#186072

Postby chas49 » December 11th, 2018, 8:20 am

stewamax wrote:Maybe there is an opportunity for those with electric cars: if mains power fails, put the charger in reverse and let the car power the house!


Yes. https://phys.org/news/2018-05-electric- ... orage.html

It's called V2G apparently. (Vehicle to Grid)

chas49
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Re: Smart homes

#186074

Postby chas49 » December 11th, 2018, 8:29 am

bungeejumper wrote:But at no point, unless I've missed it, does he refer to what the rest of his family think about the house. Indeed, I don't think he mentions having a family at all. Or a "significant other" of any kind. The poor saddo has become a full-time concierge to his own hyper-complicated house, to the point where keeping it running is his sole obsession.

Of course, I suppose it's possible that his family simply ran away from home? Or maybe his wife is still locked in the upstairs lavatory, pleading uselessly with Hal to open the door? ;)

BJ


I think you missed this
I live in a busy house and the logs from those sensors are manic, probably the reason why they were eating batteries before I did the change!


He was talking about door sensors. So I think there is a family after all

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Re: Smart homes

#186083

Postby Meatyfool » December 11th, 2018, 9:04 am

chas49 wrote:
stewamax wrote:Maybe there is an opportunity for those with electric cars: if mains power fails, put the charger in reverse and let the car power the house!


Yes. https://phys.org/news/2018-05-electric- ... orage.html

It's called V2G apparently. (Vehicle to Grid)


It may seem pedantic, it is actually V2H - vehicle-to-home. The home is powered by the vehicle battery.

V2G is a method to handle peak demand across the whole electricity grid. The car owner would sign up to a provider who would export energy from the battery to the grid (much as excess PV is exported to the grid) when grid demand requires, up to a set amount of energy that the car owner permits. The car owner does not get the use of that power, although they will get paid for allowing their battery to be used.

A car owner using V2H to power their home pays nothing for their electricity consumption when on the battery. The car owner on a V2G programme would be paid for any energy extracted from the battery but would still have to pay for energy imported. 2Kwh exported and 2Kwh imported when netted off would still (I imagine) result in a cost to the car owner.

When the grid goes down, V2H owner is smiling, whilst V2G is freezing in the dark and not earning any money.

And one last thing, the car has to be designed in mind for two way flow of electricity - My Gen2 Leaf isn't.

Meatyfool..

dspp
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Re: Smart homes

#195052

Postby dspp » January 20th, 2019, 2:52 pm

machinon is here
Well, at least 30 of them!


etc @ https://www.machinon.com/blog-1/machinon-is-here

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Re: Smart homes

#195339

Postby PrincessB » January 21st, 2019, 5:28 pm

I spent the weekend in an AirBnB 'Dumb' house which was inspiring but not in a good way.

To start, they couldn't be bothered with a TV antenna, so had installed a smart TV (No internet but a decent 4G signal) and said if you wanted to watch anything, check your phones data allowance and stream it. I didn't turn the TV on.

Extractor fan in the bathroom was set to run 24/7 regardless of whether the lights were on or off. Add to this an iffy heating system and a tiny radiator and having a shower was similar to something you expect if you're in the army.

The louvers in the kitchen extractor fan had locked into the open position, so essentially you had a four inch hole in the wall and could watch the fan blades turn as the wind blew hot air out or 2ºC air into the room.

After a lot of fooling around, I got the heating running - To make things more interesting, there was a thermostat in the wall but it was no longer connected. The result was being either boiling hot or freezing cold and as there was sod all insulation in the walls, the transition from hot to cold was pretty quick.

A proper 'Dumb' house then.

My feelings have always been a passive first approach, simple things like decent wall insulation and double glazing are such an easy first step (unless you've got solid walls which requires more effort).

Following from that, there were some articles about LED lights in the papers which while, true were written by people who like to live in dark spaces. While you can get 60watt equivalent LEDs for a pound, the high lumen ones cost considerably more - They still save a lot of power and good ones last for ages. The newspapers did make the valid point that changing all of your bulbs to LED is a better way to use less power than a few A rated applicances - The main one being the fridge/freezer.

Unless asked, I wont go into the full on rant (edit - informative post) about themal mass, thermal gain, or passive heat recovery) the deal for me is that you can work out this stuff, install it and it will just work.

The microcontrollers that can turn a fan on and off depending on heat or humidity don't need to be linked to the internet and I can't see why doing so is of any use.

Some people on here have commented on how good a non internet, semi intelligent heating controller can learn about your ways and get the house ready for you by learning - I've nothing against that, barring the fact a well designed house should be ready for you all the time.

To me, the idea of selling the internet of things will rely on a heap of products that could be designed out by building properly. I'm sure there will be some takers, but I'm all for keeping things simple and efficient rather than complex and prone to going wrong.

I am reminded of the late Douglas Adams and his quote on this:

“I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”

I seem to recall that there was a further section that added to 3 that said:

Until it has been around for ten years and then you decide it wasn't such a bad thing after all.

B.

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Re: Smart homes

#195562

Postby sg31 » January 22nd, 2019, 1:21 pm

PrincessB wrote:I spent the weekend in an AirBnB 'Dumb' house which was inspiring but not in a good way.


My feelings have always been a passive first approach, simple things like decent wall insulation and double glazing are such an easy first step (unless you've got solid walls which requires more effort).

Following from that, there were some articles about LED lights in the papers which while, true were written by people who like to live in dark spaces. While you can get 60watt equivalent LEDs for a pound, the high lumen ones cost considerably more - They still save a lot of power and good ones last for ages. The newspapers did make the valid point that changing all of your bulbs to LED is a better way to use less power than a few A rated applicances - The main one being the fridge/freezer.


B.

On the first point I've recently used YBS SuperQuilt with great success

https://www.screwfix.com/p/ybs-superqui ... -10m/68120

Batten the wall, staple the superquilt to the wall, cross batten. Fix plasterboard etc. Much easier than other alternatives and worth considering. It only takes up 2" of roomspace and the plasterboard thickness. Much easier to install than Celotex.

Screwfix was the first example I found. I managed to buy for about £90 per 15 sq m roll.

Regarding LED lights, I've mentioned LED panel lights before, I love them and fitted 24W round panels to all of our new upstairs. Loads of light, very cheap and can be installed in the depth of plasterboard. They have a much wider beam angle than down lighters and flood the room with light.

https://www.ledkia.com/uk/buy-basic-ult ... panel.html

dspp
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Re: Smart homes

#256452

Postby dspp » October 7th, 2019, 9:45 pm

https://www.machinon.com/blog

For you smart home types, this is your holy grail. They are making interesting progress at machinon.

regards, dspp

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Re: Smart homes

#257647

Postby jaizan » October 13th, 2019, 11:39 pm

sg31 wrote:On the first point I've recently used YBS SuperQuilt with great success

https://www.screwfix.com/p/ybs-superqui ... -10m/68120

Batten the wall, staple the superquilt to the wall, cross batten. Fix plasterboard etc. Much easier than other alternatives and worth considering. It only takes up 2" of roomspace and the plasterboard thickness. Much easier to install than Celotex.


This is also equivalent to only 9mm thickness of the Celotex, which means it's inferior as the common Celotex thicknesses are 25, 50, 75 and 100mm.


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