Off grid with Lutron HomeWorks Interactive Home Automation System [RE-wrench

Nick Nicholas, APS APS at SBCGLOBAL.NET
Tue Apr 22 23:41:04 PDT 2003


Jeff:
    Thanks for the reply.  Your first point seems clear.  I am going to pass
on your advice to the customers, who will be overseeing the design of the
home automation system.  The customers are a scientist and an electrical
engineer.  The engineer will be programming the software which monitors and
controls the lighting system, security system, and the SW inverters.  They
sized the batteries and the solar array based on my equipment selection.
They were pretty detailed in their load estimates.
    Perhaps they we will test the automation equipment at the power
building, while the residence is being constructed.
Nick
Alternative Power Systems
www.alternativepowersystems.com
aps at sbcglobal.net
135 Colfax Ave.
Grass Valley, CA 95945
(530) 274-0588 phone
(530) 274-0589 fax
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Yago" <jryago at earthlink.net>
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 9:32 PM
Subject: RE: Off grid with Lutron HomeWorks Interactive Home Automation
System [RE-wrench


> Nick,
>
> As you pointed out, my 1993 solar home represents one of the first
> installations combining inverters, a generator, and batteries, to a whole
> house automation system that included remote control of 60 lighting and
> appliance circuits by phone and computer, wireless driveway controls from
> cars, remote greenhouse watering and HVAC system control.
>
> As I stated in a past post that you quoted, I could not get the inverter
> manufacturers to understand the control problems we were having, and could
> not get the home automation manufacturers to even talk about an inverter
as
> a power source.
>
> I found that all home automation system control design engineers start
with
> one common assumption - that the power source will be constant, clean, at
a
> fixed voltage and with a perfect 60 cycle sine wave form.  Anything other
> than this voids their warranties.  I might add that I have actually
> witnessed some home automation products catching fire when powered from a
> modified sinewave inverter, and some brands of automation wall switches
will
> stay very hot to touch!
>
> Here is what I learned:
>
> Rule 1 - Don't even think about it!
>
> Rule 2 - If you ignore rule #1, keep it simple.  Trying to turn on the
> living room light from a remote control lost under the couch (with the TV
> remote) is not really home automation to the homeowner. Most people will
> actually use only a small fraction of their system's capabilities, like
> turning on a few outside lights or main entry lights from several
different
> locations.
>
> Rule 3 - Use only switching devices designed like latching relays that
stay
> in their last position if there is a power "blip".  Many of these relays
are
> solid state devices, and will reset to "ON" after any part cycle power
> interruption like switching from grid to inverter to generator.
>
> Rule 4 - These home automation systems are designed for remote control,
and
> their designers are not concerned about their own power consumption.
These
> systems can really add up to one big 24 hour/day "parasitic" load.  If
your
> system requires a computer "front end", use the "black box" type with
solid
> state hard disk memory that you program from a laptop, then dis-connect
the
> computer.  These have far less standby power consumption than a full
> computer.  If you need lots of control relays, make sure they use little
or
> no power after they switch state.
>
> Rule 5 - You said your system controls by DC communication wiring, but I
> think you will find that most of these automation systems control ALL of
the
> home audio/video equipment by an infra-red signal converter, which means
all
> of this audio/video equipment must have their remote power control
circuits
> energized to function, which is also a big standby 24 hour/day loss, and
> this is the equipment most home automation buyers want to remotely
control!
> These systems also require video multiplexers in order to send the video
> from a source in one room to another and these also operate 24 hours per
day
> and do not like power problems.
>
> Rule 6 - Go back and read Rule #1.
>
> Jeff Yago
>
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