Enpr-256

Reading and Exercises

Week of June 19th
- Pages 76-122 in Reader's Digest Back to Basics
- Read Colin's explanation of degree days (link below in Reference Material). Talk about it enough to make sure that you understand the details.
- Work through (individually) the online energy audit at http://hes.lbl.gov using Miller Farm as the house. Make a note of your session number, you can return and re-calculate it.
- Spend an hour or more browsing the Real Goods Solar Living Source Book. I want you to get a good sense of the range of gear available in this space and the complexity and costs associated with it.
Week of June 26th
- Read the manual for the WattsUp meter. Set it up with a small load (light, toaster, rocket launcher, etc.) and try the different modes. Set the cost of electricity to the amount the College is paying (from the RP&L bills).
- Document what you have learned so far about solar hot water and grid tied systems using the links below. Tank sizes and prices, conversations with agencies, etc.
- A little basement cleaning and lighting would go a long way towards making the hot water heater monitoring gear installation on Saturday a lot easier.

Week of June 26th
- Setup a WattNode pulse on a 110VAC line with the LCD display. Compare the electrical usage of an idling computer for 12 hours using the WattNode and the WattsUp units. Connect them in serial so that each "run" includes both measurements. The WattsUp can be set to display in the same units as the WattNode's LCD. Document your work, with prose and pictures, here.

Week of July 3rd
- Setup a WattNode TTL on a 110VAC line and interface it to a computer's serial port. Write a simple program to read the value off the serial port, convert it, and write it to a log. Compare the electrical usage of an idling computer for 12 hours using the WattNode/software combination and the WattsUp units. Document your work, with prose and pictures, here.

Degree days explained - http://cs.earlham.edu/~copelco/wiki/index.php/Degree_Days
Degree day interface
a nifty website about energy from the University of Missouri-Rolla -http://www.ece.umr.edu/links/power/
Doug Ahlfeld contacted Ehren and offered his help on our solar projects. He has been working with solar hot water and PV in Indiana for a number of year and would be willing to come out to the farm to chat with the group. Phone: 260-437-1478. He recommended http://www.BTFSolar.com for the hot water system supplies.

Near Term

Write up results of 12 hour WattNode/WattsUp? test run and post on wiki with pictures and diagram. (Ehren)
Get LP gas bills from maintenance
Track down the LP gas bills and put them in the database, on-going feed?
Setup monitoring gear, plumb database interface
When was hot water heater installed
Cost and availability of bladder for fuel tank
Continue research into cost of new tanks (Ehren)
Measure bulkhead door, can tanks fit
Calculate line loss for barn to house - N VDC (without inverter) and 110 VAC (with inverter) (Dan)
Cleanup our weather data
Build a local repository of Farmland's data or another nearby location, develop an interface
Develop year-to-year comparison interface
Setup an on-going feed for the RP&L bills (Colin, is this possible?)
Track down the most recent wind survey data for this area
Track down the most recent solar incidence data for this area

Medium Term

Long Term