[LINK] Free Sydney Smart Home
Richard Chirgwin
rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au
Thu Feb 11 16:54:09 AEDT 2010
Tom Worthington wrote:
> The NSW Government is offering a family a free smart home in Sydney for
> a year. The family will receive free accommodation in return for writing
> about their experience using the energy and water efficient features of
> the house at the Newington Smart Village Project in western Sydney.
>
> The home uses some innovative energy technology, such as fuel cells, but
> the "smart" part does not look very innovative, having the usual,
> and mostly useless, "you can monitor it from your iPhone" features of
> such display homes.
>
I've always wondered about that. Smart or not, I'd like the home to take
care of itself, thanks. I don't think wet-nursing the appliances is a
fun way to spend time. Let's see: "Lights on = use energy. Lights off =
not using energy." Why do I need an iPhone to tell me that?
The idea is supposed to be "a detailed picture of energy and water use".
Well: I know where the electricity goes (computers; fridge; lights;
sometimes the TV). Ditto gas (clothes dryer, winter heaters). I know
whether the water goes (showers; toilet flushing; washing machine; the
sink; the bathroom basin - in roughly descending order). So why is (say)
a home Website going to do anything other than itself become an energy sink?
The synergy between a plug-in electric car and fuel cells could be
interesting to see.
But gee, the real upside would have to be getting a chance to empty a
house so as to carry out some renovations ...
> Nate Cochrane described it in "Utilities seek Jetsons for home of the
> future" (IT News, Feb 9, 2010):
> <http://www.itnews.com.au/News/166760,utilities-seek-jetsons-for-home-of-the-future.aspx>
>
>
> One catch is that you have to apply via the Energy Australia E-Tendering
> Portal, which is not exactly user friendly for the average family.
Ha! Tendering portals are not user friendly for experienced tender
respondents! They are uniformly awful.
RC
> The
> system is designed for companies, so those without an ABN have to
> register by pretending to be overseas company (tender ENERGY-447194):
> <https://www.tenderlink.com/energy/>.
>
> One interesting feature of the the e-tendering system is that they
> provide a web based forum to ask questions about a tender and get
> answers. Here is the Q&A on the smart home (you need to register to see
> this):
> <https://www.tenderlink.com/energy/?&tenderer=2744.117&forum&topic=2600.9978>.
>
> More in my blog:
> <http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2010/02/smart-home-in-sydney-for-free.html>.
>
>
>
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