h a l f b a k e r yBone to the bad.
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This is a three part device...one part clamps over the mains
coming into the house, the other is a light by the door, and
the other part, a smart plug for items that are left on
deliberately...such as refrigerators.
The microcomputer in the portion clamped around the mains
measures the electricity
being consumed by the entire house.
The smart plugs measure the electricity being consumed by
individual devices. If there is a difference, the light by the
door goes on, indicating that you have left a light on, or
maybe an iron plugged in.
Key with lock status indicator
Key_20with_20lock_20status_20indicator
A tangentially related idea [hippo, Mar 20 2010]
X-10 home automation systems
http://www.x10.com/automation/index.html
Control your house over the net if you want. [RayfordSteele, Mar 24 2010]
[link]
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Why not put it on individual circuits in the breaker panel or somewhere similar? That way you don't need the "Smart Plugs" or to be working with mains electricity. |
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What if the light by the door fails ? Surely you need at least three ? |
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Move the light to an indicator to a personal handheld
device? |
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Did I remember to bring/ turn on/ configure my personal
handheld device? |
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This is a good idea, if it can be done simply. I like the idea
of non-contact measurement. As for the Ian's objection, the
light need only be just inside the front door, not outside, so
you can check as you're leaving. [+] |
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But checking it would become automatic and, over time, slip
below the surface of the conscious mind. At this point you'd
be unable to quite remember whether you checked the "Did
I leave a light on" light before you left the house. I suppose
the answer would be a portable device which showed
whether you had remembered to check - a sort of "Did I
check the 'Did I leave a light on' light light". |
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Logically, you should just stay at home, in the dark. Then
you can see that your lights are off. |
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The idea is to make is as simple as possible, and is
to reduce incidences of OCD, did I leave the iron
on, etc.
Ian_Tindale... It would be placed be the inside of
the door, not the outside, so it would not be an
indicator nor invitation to burglars.
Hippo...instead of running through each room to
check, you can now check in one place to see if
everything was turned off.
Alx...re individual breakers, this is a retrofit, not a
new build. |
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Veering a little off topic here but I can't wait for the day when you can phone your home and ask it if you left anything on. I know I can do this already but it doesn't answer me back yet...and the remote, why doesn't the remote control have a pager number you can call so it beeps when it's lost? |
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//why doesn't the remote control have a pager number you can call so it beeps when it's lost?// |
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Sometimes I wish my phone had one of them. |
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[senatorjam]//to reduce incidences of OCD// How? (I can
see how it might reduce
the disability caused by OCD, though.) |
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// I can't wait for the day when you can phone your home and ask it if you left anything on // |
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[2fries], we have the technology. You know you want it. Resistance is Futile ... |
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// I can't wait for the day when you can phone your home
and ask it if you left anything on // |
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We also have the technology. It's called "servants". |
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// I can't wait for the day when you can phone your
home and ask it if you left anything on // |
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I can't help but think of 2fries as an older more
mature ET, trying to phone home. "Phone Home"... |
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I solve this problem by leaving everything on. So I *know* |
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Have I gone out without activating my "did i leave a light on" light? |
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Actually a better idea would be: "did I wash my pet aardvark's bathing trunks today" light. |
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// measures the electricity being consumed by the entire house. The smart plugs measure the electricity being consumed by individual devices. If there is a difference // you have a short and your house is about to burn down. |
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I like this, the smart house is already smart enough, and terribly expensive to install, but this would be a small step in that direction. |
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btw. 2fries, are you going to sit there and take that slam from Blissy? |
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To avoid worrying about leaving the iron on, you should replace your electric one with either a modern butane iron, or an old fashioned gasoline powered one. |
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//for every shirt you could have 2 cups of coffee// |
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You see, here's the basic problem with humanity. For
goodness sake, can we not get a collective pair? |
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Tom Bodett finds this whole idea of not having a
light on simply strange. |
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If there was a separate "super-circuit" for circuits powering things that must be on at all times (for instance the refrigerator, so the food doesn't spoil) you could ensure that only those things are on by simply turning the other circuits off at the breaker. |
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Blissy can slam me all she wants, as long as she keeps that M&M's trail coming. |
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damn, forgot to put the did-I-leave-a-light-on-light on a smart plug... |
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[Space] The refrigerator doesn't need to be on all the time. If the door is shut the food will stay at the right temperature for hours. This is what makes refrigerators most suitable for intelligent power systems where, if the power grid is under a big load, it can tell everyone's refrigerators to turn off for half an hour. In fact, no clever signaling is needed: A cheap circuit built into the refrigerator could detect a decline in the frequency of the AC signal (the first sign of an AC power grid being under strain) and switch itself off. This sort of thing, applied at a large scale, could make electricity production much more efficient. |
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Lazy power companies would come to rely on this and you'd (given enough time) end up with spoiled food. |
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