An ongoing case-study on residential energy-efficiency is being conducted by students in the Energy Services Program at the Lakes Region Community College (Laconia, NH) and data is being published on Energy Matters – New Hampshire.
The goal is to provide non-biased information to consumers about how to save energy and replace fossil fuels with renewable energy.
Three different New Hampshire residences have been selected and are monitored using Spinwave Systems’ wireless sensor networks. Data is continuously pushed to the “Cloud” and can be accesses via an ECO-Dashboard, based on Google’s Visualization API.
All three homes were built in 2009:
1. A home built to code, (IECC 2006).
2. An energy efficient home (triple pane windows, foam insulation, ICF’s, geothermal heating and cooling).
3. A Passive solar home which is well insulated and has a PV system.
Temperatures, relative humidity, HVAC run-times and energy consumption are logged in a relational database (mySQL) and real-time and historical data can be accessed and analyzed via the Eco-Dashboard.
Wireless sensors are positioned at strategic outdoor and indoor locations to monitor comfort levels, weather influence and energy consumption.
The goal of the case study is to help consumers to identify the best energy-efficiency investment for their particular situation.
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