Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Team 12


Talking about buildings being “Green” people mainly think about using green energy such as solar panels or wind turbines and it is mostly put in prospect to commercial buildings being able to gain the most from it. But going green can also mean using less energy and can also be put in prospect to residential real-estate having a great impact to going green. So my group and I plan on designing a database and prototype suggestions for integrating common systems in residential buildings to save energy. We plan on basing our design and prototypes based off the research and technology which was used to create a successful product out in the market called Nest. For people who are unfamiliar with Nest, it is an innovated new “smart thermostat” out on the market which can learn its owners tasks based on patterns and also wirelessly connect to the web to acquire outdoor conditions and integrate it with indoor conditions to run the HVAC system in the building efficiently. It has an easy plug and play installation with a very simple to use interface which can be learned quickly by an average person. Its Wi-Fi connection to the web able its user to have wide range of accessibility which is a key feature for better options for integration. Additionally the Nest is compatible to a wide range of units in its field and offered for an affordable cost for any average family in the United States with return on investment of rest than two years.

For our project, just as Nest operates for the HVAC system of the residential buildings, we will research how a very similar concept can be incorporated with other important systems in the residential building such as lighting system, electric system, curtain system and etc. we will also look into how the interface which is provided by Nest with its products can be expanded to link these additional systems without affecting the simplicity and very low learning curve of the Nest interface and controls. Key factors that will play the main goals of the research and design will be simplicity, accessibility, wide range of compatibility, affordability, and options of integration. As a team we have a growing interest in the key factors mentioned in the previous sentence in addition to electronic gadgets which also relates to the topic of integration being explored in class that has lead us to this project. None of the team members have every worked with creating a database which we believe will be the biggest challenge when completing this project.          
  
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