Presentation to Halsall & Associates (engineering firm) by Dr. Lyn Bartram, Johnny Rodgers, and Chris Brandson.

1. Human-Centred Systems for Sustainable Living
Lyn Bartram
Assistant Professor
Johnny Rodgers
Masters of Science Student
School of Interactive Arts and Technology
Simon Fraser University
Chris Brandson
President, VerTech Solutions
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2. Overview
Problem
Mission
North House
Central Home Automation System (Chris Brandson)
Adaptive Living Interface System (Johnny Rodgers)
Where we go from here (Lyn and Chris)
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3. What is Sustainability?
Sustainable living:
Lifestyle choices that restrict carbon and
ecological footprints by altering methods of
Energy consumption, water use,
transportation, diet and consumerism.
“It’s about small personal steps.”
David Suzuki
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4. What’s in our toolbox?
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5. What residents often get
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6. Mission
Explore approaches that aid home occupants in modifying their energy
use behavior in small scale
Simplify the task of measuring, visualizing and understanding energy
use while providing a reward for energy reducing behaviors.
Implement these goals in the interfaces to North House, a self-sufficient
solar house
Entry to 2009 Solar Decathlon
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7. North House
www.team-north.com
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8. Embedded Automation’s
mHome Division
• Embedded Automation, Inc.
– Founded in 1998
– Founders: Ted Singh & JB Golee
– Privately held by founders
Embedded Automation
– Headquarters: Surrey, BC, Canada
• mHome Division
– Initiated in Q4 CY2004
– Internal division of Embedded Automation
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9. mHome Products are
Part of the Digital Home
Media
Delivery
Digital
Home
Home
Media
Management
Centers
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10. mHome Prouducts Bring
Together the Digital Home
• Support for wide array of user
interfaces:
– Web browsers
– TV + PVRs
– Touch screens
– Mobile phones (incl. iPhones)
• Support for wide array of digital
home devices
– Thermostats
– Lighting systems
– Security and camera systems
– A/V components
– Other smart devices
• Status, control and automation
– No programming required
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11. VerTech Solutions
Founded by Chris Brandson 2009
Green Building Spin-Off from Embedded
First Project North House
Currently contract development ZigBee
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12. North House Controls
Configure or develop Adapter for each “Appliance”:
 Embeddia SC2 Blind Controller (Nysan)
 Waterloo HVAC & General IO (Beckhoff PLC)
 Schneider Electric Branch Power Meter
 Draper SPGC4 Blind Controllers (roller blinds)
 Lightolier Brilliance II
 Resol DL-2 Solar Thermal Datalogger
 Ambient Canvas (NCD PWM85)
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13. Custom Controls
 Each Appliance presents one or more Devices to
mControl
 Many Exported to ALIS for visualization / control
and log to database
 Coordinated Action implemented locally through
mControl macro language
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14. North House Future
 House in Vancouver for 2010?
 Continue to Enhance Controls
 House is a Living Laborarory
 Work with Hydro on Smart Meter
 ZigBee Smart Energy Profile
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15. ALIS: Adaptive Living Interface System
Controls
Mobile Application
Ambient Canvas
Web Application
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16. ALIS: Controls
 Control of house systems:
 Exterior shades, interior blinds, lighting,
HVAC, bed retraction
 Optimization/automation preferences
 Home Presets
 One touch configuration of house settings
 Three embedded touch panels
 17” in backsplash for centralized control
 2x 8” at entryways for local control
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17. ALIS: Web Application
 Feedback on resource consumption
 Electrical power and energy
 Water
 Quick Snapshots and in-depth Resource
Analysis with Pulse Energy™ Software
 Community Networking
 Share and compare data
 Compete in challenges
 Share tips
 Preset management
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18. ALIS: Mobile Application
 Subset of web application
functions
 Designed for iPhone
 Mobile visualization features
 Social networking
 Home controls (subset)
 Allows remote access to
house data
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19. ALIS: Ambient Canvas
 Ambient indication of “how the house is doing”
 Provides feedback in three categories of sustainability
 Net-zero, Water consumption, Challenge performance
 Mapped to intensity of light: brighter = better
 Informative Art
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20. Team North
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21. The road forward
Long-term research program (Lyn Bartram, Rob Woodbury)
Designing interactive home systems for sustainability
Medium goals:
Living labs (North House, standard homes)
Partnerships:
VerTech Solutions
City of Vancouver Ray Cole, UBC
BC Hydro BCIT Green Building Trades
Embedded Automation David Suzuki Foundation
Many others to be explored!
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