Automation Innovation

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Imagine you are easing into your weeklong beach vacation when you suddenly realize you inadvertently left your home air conditioner on full blast. Time to panic? Not if you have a home automation system.

Home automation systems are computers wired into homes to control the HVAC, lighting, appliances, water heating and other systems. With integrated sensors that measure light, temperature and humidity, they can automatically adjust these elements depending on how they are programmed. They also track each appliance’s energy use and the home’s overall energy performance. Many home automation systems can be adjusted from the web or on any web-enabled device — even from, say, Aruba.

Ohio State students used a home automation system in 2009 in Solar House I, their first submission in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon competition. The house, which finished in the top 10, is now on exhibit at the Columbus Zoo to raise awareness about energy conservation.

A new team of students has been selected to return to Washington, D.C., in 2011 with a second entry, enCORE House, which will include a more sophisticated home automation system. The team has completed the design phase of the house and will soon begin the construction drawing phase.

The team uses Trane’s TRACE Energy Modeling Software, which determines how much energy is needed to heat and cool the space, enabling them to choose the right HVAC system for the home. They’ll outfit the house with a BuildingLogiX home automation system that uses a dedicated touch-screen computer to provide a user-friendly control interface and to display real-time energy usage and production.

“The system gives us very specific information, so we know exactly how much energy each appliance is using as well as how much power the PV array is producing,” says Mark Walter, associate professor of mechanical engineering and a Solar Decathlon faculty advisor.

The 2011 house will have a central HVAC system with air ducts and an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) to capture the energy from the exhaust air and send it back into the system, increasing its efficiency.

“This time around, the centralized HVAC system will work a lot smarter, but the integrated ERV will make the home automation system more complicated,” says Walter. “This will require more sensors because the design of the home has changed from an open floor plan to a two-bedroom floor plan.”

While home automation systems can provide excellent energy-saving capabilities, Keoni Fleming, another Solar Decathlon faculty advisor, says they should work in tandem with the design of the house to achieve maximum performance.

“The natural environment surrounding the house should play a part in how the house is designed,” says Fleming, adjunct professor at the Knowlton School of Architecture and project architect at DesignGroup in Columbus, Ohio. “For example, windows need to be strategically placed, depending on the sun and the direction of the prevailing winds, to take advantage of natural ways to cool and heat the home, which significantly reduces energy consumption.”

The Solar Decathlon team plans to use computational fluid dynamics, coupled with algorithms, to simulate and predict the airflow through the house.

“My role as a faculty advisor is to help the students integrate engineering technology with the overall design aesthetic of the home,” says Fleming. “There is heavy collaboration between architects and engineers to achieve the best possible outcome.”

Contact:

Mark Walter, (614) 292-6081, walter.80@osu.edu

Keoni Fleming, (614) 255-2229, kfleming@designgroup.us.com

Category: Research