Monday, July 18, 2011

[cwvwufap] Real-life Maxwell's demon

If the outdoor temperature is "more comfortable" than the indoor temperature, open the windows.  If "less comfortable", close them.  (Standard technique of using nighttime cool air to keep cool during the hot day.)  So far, easy.

Next, factor in future expected temperature, based on weather forecast.  The indoor temperature may be on the lower side of comfortable now, but the rest of the day is expected to become blistering hot, so close the windows now.  Heat will still leak in.

Of course, a fully automated system with motors on the windows would be nice, but expensive.  A much simpler alternative is human power.  A device, with indoor and outdoor sensors, and internet to download weather forecasts, alerts you via mundane or sophisticated communication protocols, whether you should open or close your home windows.

There's a bit of a AI learning problem that the weather forecast may be for a position slightly different from your location.  The device needs to learn the correction necessary.  The device may also need to learn how much heat transfer occurs even when windows are closed, which will differ from house to house.

There's also the tricky problem of even though the device alerts the owner to change the state of the windows, the owner might not do so, and there's no direct way for the device to know.  Push a button after performing the device's suggestions?  Monitor the indoor temperature?  Sensors on every window?

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