Delivered

Let’s see. 76°at 4 in the morning. That should tell you what kind of day we’re going to have. The winds have done their job and delivered the heat, so now they are only blowing at 11 mph.

I haven’t turned the AC on this year; the house has good insulation and dual pane windows but we’re at that point where the AC is going to have to be on for awhile each day if we want to stay ahead of the temperature curve. And the curve is telling me that it’s 83° inside! So I’m flipping the switch. I sure hope I have some PG&E stock in those mutual funds. That would make the pain more bearable.

OK, the fans are blowing some cool air now and that’s when I realized that we have these great computers scattered around the house, but not one of them is doing a thing to help us be comfortable and to spend less money on power. Why aren’t there more software/hardware packages to allow us to retrofit our houses to be ‘smart’ houses? There’s a few, but competitive marketing is almost non existent and what is available is almost always a DIY proposition.

I would love to sit here in front of the computer and fine tune the AC system. I could designate startup times and temperature zones. I could see real time temperatures by room and servo motors would control the air outlets into those rooms. Let’s see; we’re going to Chico this morning and I could plan for a temperature rise while we are gone and a drop when we return. The software could monitor power pricing (on-line and real time) as well and offer settings that would maximize savings or comfort.

I think there’s a market for this.