Recent Posts

Topic: Smart Energy - In the home / Insulating windows - something cheap for a sharehouse

Heya,

I was going to message Sam directly, but thought it probably makes more sense to share this question.

So, I’m living in a sharehouse where the windows are by far the biggest problem with keeping heat in the rooms in winter.  If I sit next to the window in my room, and you can feel the heat being literally sucked out from you and out through the window.  Usually I’ll just wrap myself in a blanket since it seems pointless trying to heat the room.

So my question: What is the best way to insulate windows (best in that good insulation/$)? I’ve asked around and came across a bunch of professional installations, but can see some problems:

1. Double pane: Expensive, since often requires replacing of window frames.  The price means I’d want to get some help from the landlord, which they may be unwilling to help with.  Might not be a problem for me, but could be for others.
2. Magnetic pane (magnets are placed around the frame, and then a plastic ‘pane’ is cut to size and placed on the frame): Expensive- cost was quoted to me at $300 m squared, so my room alone would be $1500 for roughly 5 m squared of window.
3. Shrink wrap (DIY kit where special sheet of plastic is placed on windows and then a hairdryer is used to shrink + stick the film to the windows): I assume its cheaper than the above options,  but having trouble finding a supplier in Melbourne/Australia. Also, I believe its not as good as double-pane-type alternatives, as I don’t think there is a layer of air trapped between the film and window.

Topic: Renewable Energy / Rising Solar Investment

Sun holds a great deal of energy within itself. The planet receives so much energy from sun in the form of its light and heat that it can power the whole world for years to come. The solar energy can be tapped by collecting its heat or by converting its light into electricity. This can be done by installing solar panels or solar power plants. The solar power plant or photovoltaic cells are made up of silicon alloys, which absorb photons emitted from the sun. The photons hit the silicon atoms in the PV cells, transferring their energy and releasing the electrons from their orbit around the nucleus, thereby generating electricity.

The solar power plant, on the other hand, uses mirrors to reflect the heat energy from a large area onto a small space, such as a pipe filled with a fluid. Once the fluid’s temperature has been raised to hundreds of degrees, it can be used to boil water and produce steam for a conventional generator.

Solar thermal investments have increased over the years. The number of solar cells manufactured has risen by 50% in 2007, with its total installed capacity reaching 8.7 GW. The efficiency of these cells has also risen from 4% in 1982 to over 20% for the latest technologies.

Topic: Renewable Energy / Different Forms of Energy

Ocean water carries
a great deal of energy within itself. It is not just a habitat for millions of
species but also carries in itself a powerhouse of energy. It can prove to be a
means of energy sustenance for the whole of the earth. The oceans energy has been
the area of interest of the human race since a long time. Tapping the energy is
based on well-understood principles derived from
hydrodynamic physics and mechanical and electrical engineering.

The ocean water
energy can be present in various forms. The most common being the
hydroelectric energy. Hydroelectric energy generally employs the use of a dam,
wherein the energy of the water flow is captured and used to power a turbine.
The turbine then generates a supplementary form of electricity. Tidal power attempts
to make use of the natural energy potential of tidal activity in the oceans and
seas. In simple terms, the high tide is captured and fed through a turbine to
generate electricity.

Ocean thermal energy conversion attempts to exploit the
variances in water temperature, from the warmer surface water to the cooler
deep water, resulting in a cyclic heat engine. Ocean thermal
energy is created when the sun’s heat warms the surface water, while the deep
ocean water remains cold.

Topic: The Open Grid / Recent changes?

Hey Josh,

You may want to check this out:

http://smartenergygroups.com/forums/10-The-Open…

Sam.

Topic: The Open Grid / New Functionality

Hey All Seggerz,

There is some new functionality in alpha, that will allow your things to validate your data between a high and low threshold.

If you would like to test this out, let me know and I can set this up for your nominated streams.

Get in touch here: http://smartenergygroups.com/questions/ask

Sam.

Topic: The Open Grid / Recent changes?

Ahh, yes, watchmything.com was pointing here and now, it’s pointing at watchmything.com!

Topic: The Open Grid / Recent changes?

Thanks Sam, that was it!

I had been using api.watchmything.com. Changed it over and it picked straight back up.

Topic: The Open Grid / Recent changes?

Hey Josh,

Are you sending through requests toi api.smartenergygroups.com?  There have been no changes to any of the services or anything else significant.  I’d wondered where your device has been. 

Sam.

Topic: The Open Grid / Recent changes?

Hi Sam,

Were there any changes recently to the API or anything? My device is no longer showing up as online but is still sending through data. It shows it last online at 30/10.

The data packet its sending is: ‘data_post=(site site_f6fc2274***************2278  (node noisymime_currentcost ? (temp_c 28.9 C)))’ (Site ID obscured)

This was working a few weeks back, but no longer seems to be accepted.

Topic: The Open Grid / OpenWrt - Asus WL-520GU

Aiko Gateway Installation

The Aiko Gateway allows the Aiko Node, which collects data and other things from the world to send it’s information back to the interenetz to this site and also to recieve commands from this site.  It acts as the go-between for all the devices in your home, office, school or building.

Aiko Gateway is open source, made by @geekscape on twittr,  and here geekscape and is available on gitbub here Aiko Gateway and Node

For this to work, the aiko_gateway.lua module needs to be placed into the home directory of the root user on the wrt.  This file also needs to be made executable ;)

The rest of this is what’s needed to get this baby to work!

Configure WRT

Disable login splash and shell access on the internal serial port:

vi /etc/inittab

>>> comment out this line, the 0 index tty serial console port.
# tts/0::askfirst:/bin/ash —login

>>> Get ser2net properly translate serial data into IP data
vi /etc/ser2net.conf

>>> blow everything and add the line:
2000:raw:0:/dev/tts/0:115200

>>> config ser2net to start on boot
vi /etc/init.d/ser2net

> add the following:
#!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common
# Copyright © 2009 Geekscape Pty. Ltd.

START=70

start() {
  ser2net
}

stop() {
  killall ser2net
}

>>> change permissions:
chmod 755 /etc/init.d/ser2net
/etc/init.d/ser2net enable

>>> make firewall work

vi /etc/firewall.user

>>> add:
# Enable SSH (port 22) for remote access
iptables -t nat -A prerouting_rule -i eth0.1 -p tcp —dport 22 -j ACCEPT
iptables        -A input_rule      -i eth0.1 -p tcp —dport 22 -j ACCEPT

# Enable LuCI web server for remote access (port 8080)
iptables -t nat -A prerouting_rule -i eth0.1 -p tcp —dport 8080 -j DNAT —to 192.168.1.1:80
iptables        -A input_rule      -i eth0.1 -p tcp —dport 80   -j ACCEPT

# Enable Ser2Net for remote access (port 2000)
iptables -t nat -A prerouting_rule -i eth0.1 -p tcp —dport 2000 -j ACCEPT
iptables        -A input_rule      -i eth0.1 -p tcp —dport 2000 -j ACCEPT

>>> script to start lua:

vi /etc/init.d/aiko_gateway

#!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common
# Written by Sam Sabey @samotage 2009-09-11.  Released into the public domain.

START=95
start() {
    /root/aiko_gateway.lua &
}

chmod 755 /etc/init.d/aiko_gateway
/etc/init.d/aiko_gateway enable

>>> then HASTA la VISTA!

reboot

…and you should be all cute.