GreenSci:minutes

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Current

2010.02.03

Attendees

Gabe, Di, Ben

Progress Update

Gabe, Di, and Ben
  • Scheduled to meet at the apartment on Woolman (on 02/05/2010 @ 6:00pm) and conduct the repairs and second blower door test. We also need to retest the apartment on Gurney to make sure our last readings were accurate. The readings showed that we actually had more air loss after the repairs than before. The culprits could be that it was warmer outside when we did the initial test; or the fact that a cabinet door came open during the second test :)

To-Dos

Ben
  • E-mail Marlene about getting heating bills from 10/2008-01/2009 and 10/2009-01/2010 on the houses that Gabe worked on this past summer (Teetor-322 College Ave, and Gurney-326 College Ave).

2010.01.28

Attendees

Gabe, Di, Ben

Progress Update

Gabe, Di, and Ben
  • Scheduled to meet at the apartment on Gurney (on 01/30/2010 @ 3:00pm) and conduct the repairs and second blower door test.

To-Dos

Ben
  • E-mail Jonathan about getting heating bills from 10/2008-01/2009 and 10/2009-01/2010 on the houses that Gabe worked on this past summer (Teetor-322 College Ave, and Gurney-326 College Ave).

2009.12.02

Attendees

Gabe, Di, Ben

Progress Update

Gabe, Di, and Ben
  • Netbook is here and all ready to go!
  • Ben contacted Mic and he has offered to reimburse us for any supplies we need to repair the houses.
  • Caktus Group was e-mailed again to see if they created IDs for our energy usage statistics. We will need those before we can proceed with the automation of the Excel spreadsheets into their website.

To-Dos

Gabe, Di, and Ben
  • Meet up on Thursday, December 3 to either repair the apartments, or conduct the initial blower door test on the last Earlham house. The weather is supposed to be rainy tomorrow; so if we conduct the blower door test while the conditions are changing, it could throw off our pressure readings.
  • We need to purchase the supplies required for the apartments in "Brick City" before the meeting on Dec. 3rd. If the rain becomes a problem, we will do the repairs as a backup option.

2009.11.18

Attendees

Gabe, Di, Ben

Progress Update

Gabe, Di, and Ben
  • ECS has offered to purchase the netbook (out of our budget) for us.

To-Dos

Gabe, Di, and Ben
  • Meet up on Friday, November, 20 to do a walk-through of the 3 apartments and determine which repairs will be best suited for each place.
  • Get ahold of Mic Jackson to see if there is money available in the Environmental Studies budget to purchase basic supplies for the repairs (caulk, outlet covers, etc.).
  • As soon as the netbook arrives, get the Blower Door software installed and setup.

2009.10.28

Attendees

Gabe, Di, Ben

Progress Update

Gabe, Di, and Ben
  • The netbook is on order, and will be here very soon.

To-Dos

Gabe, Di, and Ben
  • Grab the HIP netbook (Zoey) and conduct another blower door test on the other apartment in "Brick City". We are planning on doing that Thursday, Oct. 29 @ 3:00pm.

2009.10.14

Attendees

Gabe, Di, Ben (Jonathan e-mailed that he has another meeting to attend)

Progress Update

Gabe, Di, and Ben
  • Successfully conducted a blower door test on an apartment in "Brick City". All we need to do now is plug in the volume of the apartment and do the final calculations.
  • Add the notes taken on-site to the Wiki page (Blower Door Instructions).

To-Dos

Gabe, Di, and Ben
  • Finish up the work on the first test.
  • When the new netbook, we need to re-install the Door Fan 3.0 software and make sure our results are copied over.

2009.10.07

Attendees

Gabe, Di, Ben (Jonathan e-mailed that he wasn't feeling well)

Progress Update

Ben
  • E-mailed Charlie with some updated netbook specs. He dropped by at the beginning of the meeting to say he'd be ordering the hardware this week; and we could start using the old netbook that this new one will replace for HIP. Gabe followed Charlie upstairs to grab the computer so we could start loading software on it ASAP :)
  • E-mailed Colin and Caktus Group about the ID number for our energy usage statistics.
Gabe
  • Spoke to Alice LaFuze about conducting pressure tests on some apartments in "Brick City", and was successful! We now have the keys to 3 apartments.

To-Dos

Ben, Di, Gabe, and anyone who wants to attend
  • Conduct a pressurized test with the blower door on Saturday, Oct. 10 @ 2:00pm in one of the "Brick City" apartments.

2009.09.30

Attendees

Di, Gabe, Ben, Charlie Peck

Progress Update

Ben
  • E-mailed around to see about a loaner laptop and external hard drive. Charlie and Mic offered to look into purchasing a brand new netbook computer that we could use/share! I did a little research and sent them a few preliminary quotes from Dell, HP, and Acer.
Charlie
  • Gave us some more insight into the netbook deal. He wants us to spec out a Linux netbook with built-in GPS, 2GB RAM, and a solid-state hard drive (>= 32GB).
  • We looked up Dell's standard configurations online (during the meeting) and found that the GPS was not an option with any of the Linux netbooks. Charlie wnts to know what brand of GPS Dell is selling and if there is a driver for Linux (which might be why Dell isn't packaging those two options together). Charlie also requested that we not spec out a netbook that requires us to purchase a license for Windows (since he won't be using it, and the college already has unlimited licenses for Windows).

To-Dos

Ben
  • Keep working on energy usage uploads to Caktus Group.
  • Continue researching netbook computers and shoot some quotes at Charlie.
Gabe and Di
  • Same as last week.
Jonathan and Ish
  • Same as last week.

2009.09.23

Attendees

Di, Gabe, Jonathan, Ben, Ishmail

Progress Update

Ben
  • E-mailed Alex and he is going to set us up with a node ID and an updates API page for assistance.

To-Dos

Jonathan and Ish
  • Continue to work on energy usage worksheets and try to get us all of the data that we are missing (probably since Nov. 2007).
Ben
  • Keep working on energy usage uploads to Caktus Group.
  • Talk to Alan Bigger about getting a loaner laptop to conduct blower door tests.
  • Ask John Howell if he still has an extra external hard drive for archiving energy audits' data.
Gabe and Di
  • Talk to Alice LaFuse about testing "Brick City" apartments with the blower door.

2009.09.16

Attendees

Di, Gabe, Jonathan (had to leave early), Ben

Progress Update

Ben
  • Wrote code in the Access database to properly import the energy usage date from Marlene's spreadsheet; and wrote basic code to export that to XML format.
Gabe
  • Did a TON of work with Paul over the summer to purchase and utilize a new blower door system. Gabe took Ben and Di to the top floor of Dennis Hall to explain the various pieces of the door assembly and to run through some of the processes he went through to conduct his tests.
  • Mentioned that Jon Howell has expressed an interest in having his home evaluated for pressure leakages. The group may just take him up on that offer. We may also contact administrative members at Earlham about evaluating apartments in "Brick City".
  • The group needs to get up-to-speed on the knowledge and skills that Gabe has amassed over the summer. Then we need to begin preparing a presentation to the accounting folks to justify blower door upgrades and maintenance on leakage fixes.

To-Dos

Ben
  • Contact Alex and Colin again to get more details on energy usage uploads.
  • Meet with the HIP Group on Thursday to get an idea of what that group will be working on this semester and figure out how Green Sciences can integrate with their efforts.
Gabe
  • Check with John Howell about times that would be best for us to conduct a pressure evaluation on his home.

2009.04.23

Attendees

Di, Ishmail, Gabe, Paul, Ben

Progress Update

Gabe
  • Finished his proposal document and passed it along to Di and Ish for their input.
Ishmail
  • Nearly completed the 3-d drawing of the Green Zone in Google's SketchUp application.
Paul
  • Contacted RP&L and found out that they are completely unwilling to provide us with consistent electricity usage data.
  • Spoke with Jon Iverson about the student touring requirements and Jon said that he'd provide us with some names of people who have experience constructing dioramas.
Ben
  • Downloaded data from the "weather" database at Dennis Hall and passed it along to Paul.

To-Dos

Ishmail
  • Finish the 30d diagram and append a screenshot of it for the proposal document Gabe created.
Paul
  • Finish generating an equation to convert the "weather" database's wind stats to potential energy generation from the wind ginny.
Ben
  • Take Paul's formula and incorporate it into a real-time graphing application of some sort.

Archive

2009.04.16

Attendees

Di, Gabe, Paul, Ben

Progress Update

Jonathan
  • Created a set of equations that we could use to plug in values for the cost-benefit analysis he and Di are going to work on.
  • He stopped by the Green Zone to say that he would not be able to make it to the meeting today.
Di
  • Summarized a chapter from the energy textbook pertaining to the "Economic Paycheck of Solar Energy Systems".
Gabe
  • Still working on the proposal document.
Paul
  • Contacted RP&L and is waiting for a more detailed response from them.
Ben
  • Converted all of the meeting notes to this wiki page.
  • Logged onto the CS Departments' PostgreSQL database server and took a look at the weather database.
  • Chatted with Alex Lemann about charting options (and to get the password for the weather database). He directed me towards 2 very helpful Google technologies:

To-Dos

Di
  • Contact the HIP Group to obtaining the specs (or at least the vendor) for the wind ginny on Dennis Hall. We will need to know its efficiency in order to calculate its output based on wind speeds.
  • Take the formulas, that Paul outlined in the meeting, and compile them in preparation for the wind data export from Ben.
Gabe
  • Continue working on proposal document.
Ishmail
  • Continue working on electronic blueprint for the Green Zone.
Paul
  • Continue talking to RP&L.
Ben
  • Work on getting a CSV export from the weather database so we can apply formulas to it and determine the power production of the wind ginny atop Dennis Hall.

Archive

2009.04.09

Attendees

Jonathan, Di, Ishmail, Paul, Ben

Progress Update

Di
  • Summarized chapter 10 from the "Sustainable Energy Systems Engineering" book.
Paul
  • Visisted Miller Farm last week. They are preparing to dig the trench and setting up tower supports. Hopefully, we'll :see the tower up in 3 weeks or so (just in time for the senior gift party).
Ishmail
  • Created a hand-drawn schematic of the Green Zone.

To-Dos

Jonathan and Di
  • Work with Dennis Hall wind and solar data to create an economic statistics projection
Ishmail
  • Convert the hand-drawn schematic into a Google Sketch file and distribute it to the group.
Gabe
  • Continue to work on the proposal to the Earlham community for their involvement in developing the Green Zone.
Paul
  • Talk to Charlie about where the data for the wind and solar systems is being stored.
  • Look more closely into Jon Iverson's websites for museum regulations and figure out how we can best implement them to make it possible for schools to include the Green Zone in their field trips.
Ben
  • Be ready to dig into the database that holds the wind and solar data. Then, assist Ishmail and Di in creating an application to graph their output in real-time (possibly as a Django web page). The goal is to have a display running in the display cases in the Green Zone by the end of the semester.

2009.04.02

Attendees

Gabe, Di, Ishmail, Paul, Ben

Progress Update

Paul
  • Discussed the main points from the meetings last week.

To-Dos

Jonathan
  • Bring back the thermal camera :)
  • Obtain the March data feed from Marlene.
Gabe
  • Work on a rough draft of a proposal to the Earlham community for ideas and assistance for designing/decorating the Green Zone.
Di
  • Work on a set of documents outlining the financial benefits of green technologies.
Ishmail
  • Create an electronic blueprint of the Green Zone, with some suggestions for the kiosk and diarama, that can be appended to Gabe's proposal.
Paul
  • Create a rough sketch of the diarama that will be placed in the showcase next to LittleFE in the Green Zone.
Ben
  • Be looking for the data feed from Marlene and preparing a script to send XML data via HTTP to Caktus Group's server.

2009.03.26

Attendees

Jonathan, Gabe, Di, Ben, Paul, Ishmail

Progress Update

Paul
  • The thermal camera is here!
  • Met with Charlie and the electricians to spec out a new wind generator for Miller Farm. 400W generator

To-Dos

Jonathan
  • Check out the thermal camera and practice taking pictures.
  • Work with Marlene to get a first-go-around utility usage spreadsheet.
Gabe
  • Check out the thermal camera and practice taking pictures.
Di
  • Check out the thermal camera and practice taking pictures.
Ishmail
  • Check out the thermal camera and practice taking pictures.
Paul
  • Meet with Charlie and Mic to talk about designs for the Green Zone.
  • Meeting with Caktus Group to discuss WattNodes.
  • Meeting with Charlie on Monday to discuss the new wind generator at Miller Farm.
Ben
  • Meet with Charlie and Mic to talk about designs for the Green Zone.
  • Meeting with Caktus Group to discuss WattNodes.
  • Work on testing a feed from Marlene and possibly sending data to CaktusGroup.

2009.03.12

Attendees

Gabe, Di, Ishmail, Ben, Paul

Progress Update

Jonathan
  • Wrote a note on the Green Zone's whiteboard stating that he had a meeting at the same time as ours and could not make it.
  • He has spoken with Alan Bigger and Marlene and obtained a template for utility usage data feeds.
Gabe
Di
Ishmail
Paul
  • We have the thermal camera ordered for $4,077.00!
  • Paul also heard about a donation from an alumni that is intended for environmental equipment on campus. Maybe we can use that to purchase a new blower door??
Ben
  • Setup a meeting w/ Charlie Peck, Mic Jackson, Paul, and himself to talk about the Green Zone kiosks and general design.
  • Chatted w/ Colin and Alex about details for uploading utility data via EveryWatt APIs.

To-Dos

Jonathan
  • Continue working w/ Alan Bigger and Marlene on the utility usage spreadshets.
Gabe
  • Research some industrial aplications for the new thermal camera.
  • Will be out-of-town for Spring Break.
Di
  • Research SmartMeters to see if we might be able to purchase and install them ourselves.
Ishmail
  • Assist Ben with programming tasks involving the e-mail scanner and EveryWatt APIs.
Paul
  • Play with the new thermal camera :)
  • Research our available funds from any and all sources.
Ben
  • Play around with the EveryWatt APIs and see how we can get that going.

2009.03.05

Attendees

Di, Ishmail, Ben, Paul

Progress Update

Jonathan
  • E-mailed us to say that he would not be able to attend.
  • Marlene is building 3 worksheets, one for electricity, gas and water. When she has completed last month's we'll transmit to us.
Gabe
  • E-mailed Paul to say he would not be able to attend.
Di
  • Found several fans from Ganger Industrial Supply, and brought in comparison specs.
Ishmail
Paul
  • Found a great price and is expecting a purchase fairly soon.
Ben
  • Sent pictures and notes to the group from the PowerShift '09 event in Washington, D.C.

To-Dos

Jonathan
Gabe
Di
  • Keep researching fans, stay in the .75hp power range, and around $500 or less.
  • Also... check eBay and/or surplus supply stores to see if we can find a great deal on a used/overstock fan :)
Ishmail
Paul
  • Contact Ray Hively about the particulars of re-arranging the furniture a bit in the Green Zone.
Ben
  • Check with Alice LaFuze about getting a smaller table for the Green Zone, and to see if she has any existing furniture that could be easily converted into a kiosk structure.

2009.02.26

Attendees

Ben Johnson, Paul Schmidt, Gabe Torres, Di Wang

Progress Update

Jonathan
  • Website is pretty much done.
  • Jon e-mailed us to say that he could not make the meeting to a scheduling conflict.
Gabe
  • Created a very nice comparison chart for the 4 best choices for thermal cameras.
  • The Fluke Ti10 ($4,495.00) looks to be the sweet spot for features and price.
Di
  • Continued research on blower door components.
  • Found a manometer for $190.00 that will serve as our baseline for future comparisons.
Ishmail
  • Did not e-mail us with an update or attend the meeting.
  • Met with Ben twice to assist/observe e-mail scanner application development.
Paul
Ben
  • Finished work on the e-mail scanner application.
  • Getting everything ready for the PowerShift '09 event :)

To-Dos

Jonathan
  • Has a meeting scheduled w/ Alan Bigger to discuss the creation of an Excel spreadsheet listing all of the utility usages for each house.
Gabe
  • Needs to send the thermal camera comparison sheet to the group for documentation purposes.
  • Assist Di in further research for blower door components.
Di
  • Continue research work.
  • Lookup the cost of the actual door & related parts.
  • Lookup the cost of an appropriate fan to install in the door.
  • Contact electrical/mechanical supply companies; since they are most likely to be informed of the requirements we are looking for (i.e. Kirby Risk).
Ishmail
  • Meet with Alan Bigger's contact to ensure that they are willing to send us the utility usage spreadsheet; and inform them of the need for consistency in the data feeds.
Paul
  • Take Gabe's recommendation for the Fluke Ti10 to the person(s) that control the budgets and see if we can make the purchase fairly quickly.
Ben
  • Work with Jonathan, Alan Bigger, and the Accounting Office to test out the Excel importing process.

2009.02.12

Attendees

Ben, Paul, Gabe, Di, Jonathan, Ishmail

Progress Update

Jonathan
  • He was able to upload nearly all of the house pictures and specs to the EEAP website.
Gabe
  • Found 3 new thermal cameras in the $4,500 price range, and one in the $5,000 price range (which has a regular camera mode and PIP capabilities).
  • Fluke Ti10 Thermal Imaging Camera
Di
  • Found a blower door, meter, accessories, and software all for $2,133.
  • We can also rent one for $67/mo. (cheapest model), and another (more powerful) for $300/mo.
Ishmail
  • Assisted Di in blower door research.
Paul
  • No contact with power companies. The storms probably put them back.
Ben
  • Work is about 50% done on the automatic importer. We will continue work on this app in anticipation of the non-cooperation from the utility companies.

To-Dos

Jonathan
Gabe
  • Work on creating a comparison table for the specs on each of the thermal cameras.
Di
  • Continue researching the blower doors. Check costs of the individual parts for a custom-built door (fan, digital multi-meter w/ computer interface, resizable metal frame, foam inserts or rubber baloon).
Ishmail
  • Continue researching the blower doors w/ Di.
  • Meet w/ Ben to work on the e-mail scanner.
  • [MET ON 2-14-09 IN GREEN ZONE FOR 2 HOURS]
  • [MET AGAIN ON 2-19-09 IN MY OFFICE FOR 2 HOURS]
Paul
  • Think about attending the PowerShift '09 event :)
Ben
  • Continue working on the e-mail importer application.
  • [MET W/ ISH ON 2-14-09 IN GREEN ZONE FOR 2 HOURS]
  • Send an e-mail out about prepping the Green Zone this Saturday.
  • Contact Hannah about more details on the PowerShift '09 event and see if we can some of the Green Sciences folks on-board (Jonathan is definitely interested).

2009.02.05

Attendees

Ben Johnson, Paul Schmidt, Gabe Torres, Di Wang, Jonathan Jenner

To-Dos

Jonathan
  • Keep working on the EEAP website (includes filling in house data, assigning uploaded images to the houses, and adding FAQ information as necessary).
  • Contact Alan Bigger about obtaining regular Excel files with information about the houses' Gas bills.
Gabe
  • Continue working on the thermal camera. Try to find cameras outside of our budget range; so we can have a better picture of features vs. affordability.
Di
  • Continue investigating blower doors to see if it would be more cost-effective to assemble inexpensive parts and assemble our own vs. purchasing a complete package for a higher price.
Ishmail
  • Meeting with Ben on, 2/11/09, to assist in the prototype for the e-mail scanner/XLS importer application.
  • [MISSED THE MEETING]
Paul
  • Continue to make contacts with Vectron and RP&L to obtain regular CSV downloads of all our houses' energy usages
Ben
  • Contact WebDB folks about setting our group up for online timesheets.
  • Send a HTML page to Kay Wanous with basic overview information about Green Sciences and include links to our various projects (consisting only of EEAP currently).
  • Make sure everybody is on the EEAP mailing list and send out a test message.
  • Work on a proof-of-concept application that will be able to scan an e-mail address at regular intervals, look for EEAP-related Excel spreadsheets, parse the information, and import it into a database. I'm invisioning a Microsoft Access database reading Microsoft Outlook e-mails (every 60 seconds), then importing the cells directly into linked tables (pointing to MySQL database on "stewie", or local tables for testing purposes).

2008.12.11

Attendees

Charlie Peck, Paul Schmidt, Alex Leman, Colin Copeland (phone)

IRC Channel: #infocom

Website

http://earlham.caktusgroup.com

Completely written in Python/Django/PostgreSQL
Logic is all in the database as SQL
Admin account: charliep@earlham.edu --> abc123
Caktus Group would like to own/sell the code in the future

To-Dos

EEAP Nodes (3 current nodes)
  • Charlie purchased a powerful computer to handle this project quite easily
  • HIP will maintain the nodes
  • Alan Bigger said that he would support more purchases
Charlie will forward with RPnL contact person onto Paul for him to follow-up
  • The billing information for all of the houses we own
  • Obtaining instantaneous data of the college's power consumption
  • Harry Phillips (Marketing Director) should be responsive
Conversion of TTL pulses from EEAP Nodes into actual kilowatt hours (kWh)
  • Sends the pulses to a Single-Board Computer (SBC)
  • Uses an application called InfoBomb to convert signals to data
  • CALIBRATION NEEDED: Reading electrical ticks and amperage
  • Green Sciences should do the calibrations
  • Sends data via ethernet connection to "stewie.cs.earlham.edu"
  • Unpacks information and stores it in a local database
Business logic issues (PostgreSQL SQL code)
  • Caktus Group would like to do most of this work, but they may ask for assistance
Data issues (recurring)
  • Pay work studies pour through the data and help us validate its integrity
  • Earlham will modify the actual data for the web site
  • Alex and Colin need to see a template of the data from utility companies
  • kWh usage
  • Cost per kWh
  • Transmission costs
  • Houses are coded by their name (with lattitude & longitude coordinates)
Host the website on "stewie.cs.earlham.edu"
  • Charlie will administer the server itself until HIP can take it over
  • Server is practically brand new (quad core, 4GB RAM, etc.)

2008.11.03

Contacts

Faculty
Charlie Peck
Mic Jackson
Paul Schmidt
Ben Johnson
Students
Jonathan Jenner
Sanele Mahlalela
Malick Keita
Alex Lemann

Basic Structure of System

Manual Entries
  • "Occupants" (consumer_id, date_start, date_stop, number, etc.)
  • "Consumers" (id, name, type, etc.)
  • "Commodities" (id, name, unit, vendor, etc.)
Automated (eventually)
  • "Readings" (date, consumer_id, commodity_id, cost, reading)
  • Webpage for each Earlham house that lists the 3-year average usage and compares that to the current meter reading from our in-house appliances and to the "official" readings from each utility company.

To-Dos

Jonathan
  • Compile a list of all of the houses Earlham currently maintains with their addresses.
Paul & Mic
  • Contact Richmond Power & Light (Harry Phillips), Indiana Water (Rich Nicholson), and Vectron Gas Co. to see if they can generate CSV files of the usage for each of our houses.
  • Then, see if we can entice them to automate a process for sending this information to us on a tri-monthly basis (i.e. e-mails or FTP folder on a server that they can drop files onto).
Ben
  • [E-MAILED ON: 11-4-08 & 11-13-08]
  • Setup a meeting between Ben, Charlie, and Alex to discuss website's status and what needs to be done. Preferably a Thursday evening or weekend.
  • [E-MAILED ON: 11-4-08 & 11-13-08]
  • Check the members assigned to the eeap@lists.earlham.edu mailing list nd clean it up. Then, notify all members to start using that for all communications.
  • Alex already has a mailing list @ eeap@lists.cs.earlham.edu
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