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

[matthew tritt]

Jeff,

Your Rule #1 should be the basic parameter adopted by any builder or owner
irrespective of the power source. The current trend in increasing phantom
loads, primarily from entertainment equipment and the ubiquitous appliance
clock, is a major culprit in our culture's escalating per-capita use of
power.

I have a couple of long-term off-grid clients who practice the art of
edging-up their loads to such an extent that one of them is soon to be the
proud owner of 3 completely separate PV/generator systems on one piece of
property. Every time I up-grade a system, they totally forget/ignore my
pompous lecturing within a few weeks and start adding loads, which
eventually negate all the recent improvements. In spite of the fact that
this is some kind of job security, it's also a good illustration of how many
people actually treat electricity; as an inexhaustible stream.

It's so nice to do projects for clients who actually believe that less is
more.

Matt T


----- 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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