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Am I Hot or Not
Sure, it's not the dream system with computer-controlled vents on the furnace and a genetic algorithm to optimize heat-flow, but it is pretty damn cool. This system makes use of Dallas Semiconductor Digital Thermometers to monitor temperature throughout the house. Hopefully the fellow running the project will put up the source to the Linux driver he has running the sensors. This project ties in nicely with the question posed by a recent Ask Slashdot as well.
I've always wondered why thie hasn't existed for a long time already. All you need is a thermostat for each room and a servo controlled baffle for the vents in that room. Upstairs hotter than down? Close downstairs baffles a little...problem solved. This is hardly innovative technology.
Whew... For a moment from the title I thought it might have been a competition amongst developers to determine if they were Hot or Not. I don't think a lot of the egos out there could take that kind of abuse.
Frankie is a Radisys EP-32 with a 33Mhz 486DX, a megs of flash memory, and 16 megs of EDO RAM. Of course he boots Linux directly from the flash disk.
I hope thats not the webserver! Otherwise, I belive the answer is "hot."
You can't have an article entitled "Am I Hot Or Not" without having a link to the real Am I Hot Or Not page! Who wants to look at thermometers when you can look at real people and rate how "hot" they are based on a completely shallow judgement?!
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The project is a great idea, but I would have rather the post had waited until the designer had actually done the computer controlled vents. I would certainly like to see what vents he chose, and any problems he had hooking them up.
I also wonder about feedback problems in such a design... that is... consider that the house finds some rooms too warm... it closes their vents and other rooms heat up, as this occurs it oscilates between the rooms and vents opening and closing. Obviously this could be tweazed, but what is the electrical overhead. Where I live, electricity is extremely expensive and so it would be questionable if such a design would be cost effective.
It would also be nice to have variable vents, that is, vents that could be selectivly opened a certain amount (which would reduce the feedback problem).
Of course, here on the Island our problem is not heat control, it's dampness and channeling of tradewinds through the house - so I wonder what the possibilities of a computer controlled window screen would be, with moisture and wind sensors (probably motorized louvered windows).
Ah well, nice idea but it seems a bit premature for a solid slashdot discussion.
By the way, the interesting thing about these sensors is that they are actually network devices, each with it's own unique ID. You can address each of them separately over the "1-wire network" and get their temperature reading. Also note, that these sensors directly give you a temperature reading, not current or some other reading. So, they do not require any calibration and are a breeze to use.
Am I Geek Or Not
'Nuff said. I claim no affiliation with this site.
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