Chris Bergeron's Blog

I created an energy usage summary webpage to give me an ‘executive dashboard’ of my home energy usage.

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I wrote a program to read events from the security system and put them in to the eventlog. I have some logic in it so that not everything gets recorded. I wouldn’t want a would-be robber knowing when the system is armed or disarmed, of course!

An event is anything that is monitored by the security system, including door openings, windows being opened / closed, etc.

Tags: electronics, home improvement, php
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Today, with a combination of astute driving and good traffic conditions, I was able to hypermile the Insight up to 63.2 MPGs. I discovered a few “tricks” during the drive and I’m going to try to utilize them more during my daily drive. Among them are much more conservative acceleration, pulsing and gliding on the gas, and avoiding coasting with the clutch depressed. It seems that in the Insight, having the assist battery fully charged results in more effective “assist” during heavy motor use (climbing hills, etc). At this rate, I’ll be able to travel 630 miles on a tank of gas (in theory).

As the price of gasoline creeps up (yet again), it’s nice knowing that I’m mitigating both my financial obligation and my carbon footprint.

Here’s are a few pics:

Tags: hypermiling, insight
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I finally got around to finishing the cabinets in the main-level garage. Organization is a wonderful thing, and having enough cabinet space to store everything is going to make it much easier to find things.

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I moved my website to a new hosting provider: Peer 1 Networks If you’re looking for a great net hosting company with great customer service, I highly recommend Peer 1. Among the reasons I chose Peer 1 are their supernetwork, FirstCall Support and a 100% network uptime SLA..

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I spent most of the day installing some unfinished oak cabinets in my garage. I still have one more cabinet to mount, thought. I also installed a pegboard to mount my tools on to. Here are some pictures:

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Here’s the latest data from the commute tracker:

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This weekend I worked on the theater room some more. I started to frame the proscenium base. It’s been very slow going, but it’s some progress.

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Natalie and I went for a walk last weekend during a neighborhood yard sale. One of our neighbors was selling a Black and Decker electric lawn mower for $10. I quickly snapped it up. It works great and it produces no emissions (aside from the electricity generation). Here’s a picture of the same model (but not the actual mower):

$10 Electric lawn mower

Tags: misc
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During today’s commute, I got the Honda Insight (hybrid) up to 58.9 MPGs. Not particularly great, but not bad either. At this rate, I’ll be able to drive about 580 miles for around $20. Here’s a pic:

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I installed some carpet in the theater room. I don’t think it’s permanent, but it will have to do for now. I also found the tiles that I’m going to install in the wall arch. Here are some pictures:

Tags: home improvement
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I’m adding a circuit breaker interrupter to my home security system. The purpose of it is to completely turn off some breakers in the home when the alarm is in ‘AWAY DAY’ mode. The goal is to conserve energy by completely disabling certain circuits in the house. I have a lot of electrical vampires, things that consume electricity even when turned off, in my home. One example is our DVR. It draws about 50 watts even when it’s powered off. I don’t have any scheduled recordings, so it makes sense to disable it when it’s not being used. This is only one example, but one of many devices that consume power when I don’t need them to. As a result, I’m building a circuit that breaks the electrical circuit when we’re not home. If the resultant savings are a few hundred watts (that would otherwise run 24/7) it will be a worthwhile endeavor; particularly considering the introduction of solar power. Here’s a picture of the interruptor circuit:

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Tracking electricity usage is an important component of solar power. In order to help me achieve this goal, I wrote some software to help me monitor my electricity usage. Each month when the electric bill arrives, I input the data into an iPhone applet. This applet records the data into a database. I’m not going to link to it for privacy reasons, but here’s a picture of the applet:

The second is the number of kiloWatt hours used:

Here’s the latest data (as of Wednesday 10th of March 2010 09:25:33 AM):

• 32 months of data
• 27,421 kiloWatt hours used totalling: $USD 3,435.47. This equates to a practical average price per watt of: $USD 0.13 (including base charges and tax)
• Average bill amount: $USD 107.36
• Average kWh per month: 857

Tags: iphone, solar
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I just talked to my local utility, Sawnee EMC, and they’ve removed the administrative fees and meter rental fees associated with a net metered solar installation. A couple of years ago, when I was in the early planning stages of using solar, there was a $50/month admin. fee and a $12/month rental fee. These fees alone would have cost more per month than the savings from a 2kW solar array. Now that they’ve removed these fees, switching to solar is making even more financial sense. Also, instead of having to rely on my own battery array during darkness, I can use utility power via a net-metering capable meter. Great news!

Tags: home improvement, solar
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I put up the final wall of the theater room. I’ve also finished the design and layout of the proscenium (stage).

Tags: home improvement
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This afternoon I added the keyboard drawer to the Mame arcade cabinet. I also took a picture of the fluorescent light. Here are the pictures:

Tags: mame
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About 10 years ago, I had the crazy idea of putting a personal computer into my car. After much though and some serious planning, I decided to do it. I started the project in 1999 and it’s been evolving ever since. A lot of people may wonder why I wanted to put a personal computer into my car. Well, back when I started the project, there were no iPods or portable music players. Navigation systems for cars only existed in specialty markets (military, super luxury, etc) and nothing provided useful information like traffic conditions. So, I set about installing the computer and customizing it for my needs / desires. The project became wildly popular on the internet and it catalyzed the carputer craze. I blogged about it as I built it and it developed quite a following on-line. It was featured on a popular technology website slashdot.org and later in two books:
Geek My Ride (forworded by Apple co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak) and Car PC Hacks. As I built the carputer, I had to develop my own electronic circuit to control power issues in the car. After an overwhelming number of requests to purchase this circuit, I began selling it (the DSSC startup and shutdown controller) via my company Dashwerks, Inc.

I created a website dedicated to the project, dubbed “The DashPC” where you can find more detailed information. DashPC is an amalgam for Dashboard Personal Computer.

Here are some pictures:

Tags: carputer
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Today, I added the monitor shelf and the speaker panel. I also cut the plexiglass for the marquee and installed the fluorescent backlight. I also added a surge protector and a master power switch to the rear panel. It’s coming along slowly, but it is coming together.

Tags: mame
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I framed an arched opening in the theater room. Ultimately, it’s going to be tiled, but for now it’s just framed in. It was pretty simple to do. I just used a string to draw a semi-circle on the drywall and cut it out. Then I built a simple wooden arch and placed it behind the drywall. I added a couple of two by fours for the lower shelf and to add depth. I’m going to add lighting and possibly build a water feature into it.

Tags: home improvement
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I just came across this link and thought I’d pass it along. A mom had a 98″ custom LCD display mounted in the ceiling of her son’s bedroom.

http://gizmodo.com/5323788/exemplary-mom-builds-98+inch-screen-inside-kids-bedroom-ceiling

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