{"id":756,"date":"2009-05-20T12:15:15","date_gmt":"2009-05-20T12:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/?p=756"},"modified":"2009-05-20T12:15:32","modified_gmt":"2009-05-20T12:15:32","slug":"homecamp-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/?p=756","title":{"rendered":"HomeCamp 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday 25th April saw the return of <a href=\"http:\/\/homecamp.pbwiki.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">HomeCamp<\/a>. HomeCamp started last year as the brainchild of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/yellowpark.net\/cdalby\/\">Chris Dalby<\/a>, aiming to bring together a growing community of people interested in &#8220;green&#8221; hacking and technologies. <\/p>\n<p><em>I&#8217;ve had this post sat in draft for weeks now, meaning to come back and turn them into proper notes. As it&#8217;s been a few weeks now and I still haven&#8217;t, I thought I might as well post my rough notes as I took them on the day. Apologies that they&#8217;re a little sketchy!<\/em> <\/p>\n<p><!--more--> <\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/monkchips\" target=\"_blank\">James Governor<\/a>:  <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> kicked things off talking about the idea of HomeCamp\n<\/li>\n<li> &#8220;taking back ownership of your own energy usage data and doing stuff with it&#8221;\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dalelane\/3473755261\/\" title=\"photo 028 by dalelane, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" align=\"right\" hspace=10 vspace=10 src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3365\/3473755261_bd9ebe4328_m.jpg\" width=\"180\" height=\"240\" alt=\"photo 028\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/martindix\" target=\"_blank\">Martin Dix<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/currentcost.com\" target=\"_blank\">CurrentCost<\/a>:  <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> talked about the digital boards he was contributing to HomeCamp hackers\n<\/li>\n<li> extending CurrentCost meter into other uses beyond energy monitoring?\n<\/li>\n<li> extending it beyond localised events &#8211; using with remote sensors?\n<\/li>\n<li> what information could be collected by the CC128 from sensors?\n<ul>\n<li> example &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/bharatbedi\" target=\"_blank\">Bharat<\/a> connected it to gas meter, using digital output of recording the pulses from a pulse meter\n<\/li>\n<li> water could be done in a similar way?\n<\/li>\n<li> or outside temperature? or oil tank level? or something else?\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> some debate around difficulties some developers having around using arduino with the CC128 &#8211; as it spits out data too fast\n<ul>\n<li> should it support different modes? e.g. slower connection for live data only without bulk of history data\n<\/li>\n<li> should it support a duplex connection? e.g. some handshake where apps connect and negotiate what they want\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> over 500,000 CurrentCost meters sold\n<\/li>\n<li> should CurrentCost host their own servers to collect (and analyse, compare, visualise etc.) the data?\n<ul>\n<li> or should they partner with other people better suited to creating this\n<\/li>\n<li> similar to <a href=\"http:\/\/community.diykyoto.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Wattson community site<\/a>?\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dalelane\/3473767363\/\" title=\"photo 038 by dalelane, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" hspace=10 vspace=10 align=\"right\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3585\/3473767363_137f21ebf2_m.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" alt=\"photo 038\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/joebaguley\" target=\"_blank\">Joe Baguley<\/a> talking about energy monitoring (sans CurrentCost!): <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> talked about <a href=\"http:\/\/greenenergyoptions.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\">Green Energy Options<\/a> &#8211; who are currently doing a trial with UEA\n<ul>\n<li> paid 250 quid (?) to join trial &#8211; electrician + technical guy spent several hours in his house instaling kit\n<\/li>\n<li> they open up consumer unit, and put mini clamps on each circuit going into consumer unit\n<\/li>\n<li> you get six individual appliance monitors\n<ul>\n<li> monitors the power usage for a single plug\n<\/li>\n<li> each has a switch on top, to enable X10-like ability to turn on and off remotely\n<\/li>\n<li> also includes temperature sensor\n<\/li>\n<li> system supports up to 100 individual devices\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> they give you an EEE PC netbook, modified to run WinXP Home with MySQL, Apache etc.\n<ul>\n<li> (interestingly, to avoid you doing anything to it, they remove the keyboard!)\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> uses communication over power-lines and zigbee\n<\/li>\n<li> USB device to collect data &#8211; acts as store-forward unit, so will collect data if EEE PC shut down\n<\/li>\n<li> Web-based interface hosted by the EEE PC\n<ul>\n<li> some nice approaches to visualising the data\n<\/li>\n<li> each circuit identified (e.g. &#8220;lighting&#8221;)\n<\/li>\n<li> individual appliances identified\n<\/li>\n<li> realtime graphs &#8211; bar graphs, little animated avatars, speedos, scores &#38; rewards, etc.\n<\/li>\n<li> includes ability to turn stuff off from the web interface\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> can support gas &#8211; by clamping stuff to pipes &#8211; they don&#8217;t use the RJ45 on newer meters\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/actionlamb\" target=\"_blank\">Steve Lamb<\/a> kicked off a session on Gas monitoring:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dalelane\/3473789737\/\" title=\"photo 065 by dalelane, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" align=right vspace=10 hspace=10 src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3640\/3473789737_0964c6f316_m.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" alt=\"photo 065\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Ken from Onzo reminded us of some of the &#8220;rules&#8221; regarding gas monitoring:\n<ul>\n<li> nothing that sparks\n<\/li>\n<li> nothing that can heat up if two points fail\n<\/li>\n<li> battery powered therefore a must &#8211; nothing that is connected to the mains power\n<ul>\n<li> wires near gas pipes = bad\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> issues:\n<ul>\n<li> wide variety in gas meter models and ages (Ken aware of at least 75 types in use)\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> some meters have RJ11 &#8211; contacts which close every x cubic metres of gas\n<\/li>\n<li> optical readers an option, as discussed last time.\n<ul>\n<li> some meters that are set up to make this easy called &#8220;opto ready&#8221; (?)\n<\/li>\n<li> neat idea from <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/floppy\" target=\"_blank\">James Smith<\/a> for monitoring optical data sources &#8211; using optical mouse + arduino &#8211; very cheap repurposing of hardware\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dalelane\/3473815197\/\" title=\"photo 101 by dalelane, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" hspace=10 vspace=10 align=right src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3598\/3473815197_053fd497d9_m.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" alt=\"photo 101\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/jamieandrews\" target=\"_blank\">Jamie Andrews<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/floppy\" target=\"_blank\">James Smith<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/amee.com\" target=\"_blank\">AMEE<\/a>:  <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> AMEE:\n<ul>\n<li> &#8220;making sense of energy and carbon&#8221;\n<\/li>\n<li> neutral aggregation platform for energy and carbon data\n<\/li>\n<li> provided back end for &#8220;Act on CO2&#8243;&#8216;s Carbon Calculator\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> approaches to profiling energy consumption for a domestic building\n<ul>\n<li> estimated energy performance &#8211; sort of SAP thing you get from the energy certificate when you move house\n<\/li>\n<li> behavioural surveys &#8211; number of people, what appliances, what you try and do to save energy, etc.\n<\/li>\n<li> empirical data &#8211; CurrentCost readings etc.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> demand response\n<ul>\n<li> &#8220;not all electricity is equal&#8221; &#8211; need to take realtime demand and cost into account when considering energy usage\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> AMEE API\n<ul>\n<li> &#8220;Fire Eagle for energy data&#8221;\n<\/li>\n<li> focusing on:\n<ul>\n<li> Open Source\n<\/li>\n<li> Open &#38; Linked Data\n<\/li>\n<li> Flexible charging structure\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> two main sections:\n<ul>\n<li> data : data items that represent classes of energy usage &#8211; e.g. data items containing fuel consumption data for each model of car\n<\/li>\n<li> profiles : submitted data for a person, building, or other entity &#8211; in consistent hierarchy to &#8216;data&#8217;\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> RESTful api\n<ul>\n<li> JSON and ATOM\n<\/li>\n<li> sample code in Java and Ruby\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> offers:\n<ul>\n<li> data warehousing\n<\/li>\n<li> standardised analytics\n<\/li>\n<li> decoupling\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> so you can: publish your data from multiple sources, sensors and devices, all into AMEE\n<\/li>\n<li> AMEE 2 now live, many improvements, including:\n<ul>\n<li> improved time resolution\n<ul>\n<li> now time stamped to the minute (rather than month) and allows precise start\/end times\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> built-in unit conversion\n<\/li>\n<li> ATOM support for mashups (e.g. with Yahoo! Pipes)\n<\/li>\n<li> simpler authentication\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li> AMEE 3?\n<ul>\n<li> realtime carbon intensity data\n<\/li>\n<li> data crowdsourcing?\n<\/li>\n<li> profile portability?\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dalelane\/3474634048\/\" title=\"photo 126 by dalelane, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" align=right hspace=10 vspace=10 src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3339\/3474634048_1d6baef04f_m.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" alt=\"photo 126\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/pachube\" target=\"_blank\">Usman<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/pachube.com\" target=\"_blank\">Pachube<\/a>: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> demonstrated the <a href=\"http:\/\/apps.pachube.com\/google_viz\/\" target=\"_blank\">pachube viz application<\/a> which lets you output a pachube feed through Google visualisation\n<ul>\n<li> the time-based graph used in google finance\n<\/li>\n<li> <a href=\"http:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/?p=663\" target=\"_blank\">I blogged about it here<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"clear: right;\"\/>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/tomraftery\" target=\"_blank\">Tom Rafftery<\/a> gave an inspiring talk on &#8220;electricity 2.0&#8221; <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> my notes really can&#8217;t do it justice &#8211; but you can see a <a href=\"http:\/\/greenmonk.net\/electricity-20-talk-at-etech\/\" target=\"_blank\">video of it<\/a> which is definitely worth a watch\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><embed src=\"http:\/\/blip.tv\/play\/AfvgR4WZSQ\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"480\" height=\"390\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> slides are also on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/TomRaftery\/electricity-20-etech\" target=\"_blank\">slideshare<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li> which even include some of my pics \ud83d\ude42\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday 25th April saw the return of HomeCamp. HomeCamp started last year as the brainchild of Chris Dalby, aiming to bring together a growing community of people interested in &#8220;green&#8221; hacking and technologies. I&#8217;ve had this post sat in draft for weeks now, meaning to come back and turn them into proper notes. As it&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[274,194,302,300,380,395],"class_list":["post-756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","tag-barcamp","tag-currentcost","tag-energy","tag-homecamp","tag-pachube","tag-smart-metering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelane.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}