InterMapper Network Monitoring Software Helps One Family Reduce its Carbon Footprint
Network Monitoring & Mapping Tools Keep Track of “Green House” Performance
Customer: Bill Doering
Location: Santa Barbara, California
Application: Monitor temperature and humidity sensors in residence powered by passive solar energy.
InterMapper's Role: InterMapper, network monitoring and mapping software from Dartware, monitors Embedded Data Systems (EDS) devices in Bill Doering's Santa Barbara home to determine its energy performance.
Quote: “I've been using InterMapper at work for years and was able to quickly apply what I'd learned there to my home project.”
Bill Doering is Director of Technology at the Gervitz Graduate School of Education, University of California at Santa Barbara. “I'm responsible to make sure that everything is up and running; servers and services. I've been using InterMapper for years to monitor IMAP, SMTP, LDAP, network switches, and of course, websites.”
He also uses InterMapper network monitoring and mapping software to stay on top of an air conditioning issue that was heating up his server room. “We came in after the weekend and the server room was incredibly hot. We installed some EDS sensors and began using InterMapper software to monitor temperature and humidity.” A few years later, monitoring temperature and humidity became important issues for Doering at home.
Doering was looking for a home that would accommodate his growing family. “Real estate in Santa Barbara is really expensive,” he reports. “We couldn't find anything.” He and his wife decided to take her father's offer to swap houses. “We bought his and he bought ours.” That left resources for needed renovations aimed at adding space and leveraging the house's south-facing orientation for passive solar energy.
“We wanted to do more than save on energy bills,” says Doering. “We wanted to create an affordable, easy to follow model for others which required making the best envelope possible, one that takes advantage of solar energy without heating the house too much.” In order to specify the envelope of the house, Doering and his father created a model to simulate its performance. After the house was built and heating and cooling systems were in place, they wanted to see if the actual envelope performed to the standards set by their model. Doering recycled his work experience with InterMapper and EDS temperature sensors.
“We keep a constant check on temperature and humidity inside and outside the house,” reports Doering. “We have EDS sensors ( a mix of T2001 wall mount temperature sensors, STF wide range foil temperature sensors, and STP wide range temperature probes) in the living room, attic, and outside. They connect into EDS' HA7Net Ethernet 1-Wire Host Adapter. We collect and report the data using InterMapper. We can see what each device is reporting to determine, for example, if the building envelope is holding too much heat and making the house too hot or leaking heat and making the house cold.” Outside, Doering is monitoring the temperatures in sun and shade to contrast them against the indoor and attic temperatures.
While InterMapper does include built-in EDS probes, Doering had to create custom probes for the specific devices he's using. “I started with InterMapper's EDS probe and made modifications so they would work for my devices. I found that to be a fairly straightforward process, and I'm not a programmer.”
More network monitoring is on the way. “I need to keep track of the solar water heater and back-up on-demand water heater. When I can see how often the on-demand system is going on and off, I can tell how much free water heating we're getting.”
Doering and his family have already done a lot to reduce their carbon footprint but he's looking forward to further gains. “The next step is to become carbon neutral,” says Doering. “Maybe we'll install solar panels or buy some form of alternative 'green' energy. Until then, we'll continue to monitor current systems so that we can establish a baseline against which to compare future improvements. And we'll be able to tell if the envelope materials are continuing to perform over time.”
Read more about Doering's project