Measuring our Energy
The Historic Green Village is equipped with Emonitors, made by PowerDynamics in Boston. They consist of 12 or 24 channels each of which can measure the power in one (or several) circuits at a single load center. They send minute-by-minute readings to a Server in Boston via the internet.
You can access the server by logging on HERE and using username contact@pineapplefish.com and password hgv@ami
The information is also displayed on the wall TV in the Village Cafe!
The Emonitor in the Village Cafe monitors 22 circuits plus the main feeds. The largest energy users are the two air conditioners followed by the display case the the Espresso machine. The one in the Sears Cottage measures all 10 circuits in that building, te only one that uses appreciable energy is the air conditioning. There is one on the wall of the Sears at the top of the ramp called 'HGV Campus' and it measures the power to the items who use is spread over the development, mostly the main welll pump. Finally the one called 'HGV PV' is also on the wall between the buildings but at the low end of the ramp It measures the output of the three photovoltiac arrays: on the Warehouse, the Sears Cottage and the Village Cafe. It will be meauring the array on the Angler's Lodge, the two additional buildings yet to be developed (Pilsbury & the 'New' House), and the carport as they are added to the Green Village.
Wht's fascinating is that you can learn a lot about the energy use both by observing the summary totals, published n the website and looking at the graphs of usage with time. The big energy users stand out: the air conditioning and in the Village Cafe, freezers, fridges and coffee machines. This is why we have turned to Ground Sourced Heat pumps for more efficient air conditioning. As one example of helpful information we obtained by reviewing our energy usage, was that we noticed both air conditioning units in the Village Cafe were always coming on at the same time. The plan had been to stage their turn-on; first the West one on low, running continuously, then the East on low to support the West, and finally both on high, if needed. We were able to figure out that the display case was dumping a lot of heat into the Cafe all ngith, which the air conditioning units had to spend additional power to clear out. So, we added a night blanket and could actually measure a 25% reduction in power by going back and reviewing the energy usage with these Emonitor systems.
We plan to continue to add monitoring other data that just power to these Emonitors. By measuring the airflow and the temperature change through the air conditioining units, we arrive at the heat being transferred. If we compare that to the power being used we get the actual efficiency of the air conditioning, which we suspect will turn out to be less that shown, though more than equivalent air-to-air units.
We will keep you posted with updates on our energy consumption and generation so you can see exactly how well we are performing!