The Sims: Dorm Energy

Before entering the hibernation mode that was spring break, we set forth a few goals for our new group. Split up into two groups, one working on the sensors (Edwin, Alan) and the other with getting some numbers that could mimic the energy usage patterns of the typical dorm students.

Two things I had though about for this energy. How much energy can a floor use, we need numbers that are close to what we would typically see in our real readings. So my first task was to take a look at some floor plans and make an educated guess...estimate on the max and minimum consumption of energy for a typical floor. The second thing was to look at the typical patterns of a college student.

The first step was simple enough I believe. With some help from a few assistants I found somewhere in my office, I was able to get an accurate floor plan. In conjunction I found floor plans of each dorm and mapped out typical items found in one room.

Not sure which dorm we are going to be installing the sensors in, I'll have to have one of my group members clarify, but for now we'll use this as a bases, The Hale Aloha towers. Though I have accurate floor plans for every dorm.

Never actually dorming myself, I had to look to others around me to assist. Lucky I had plenty of people who've had experiences in this area. One graduate student, a friend, has been in all of these dorms over the course of her experience here at Manoa, so I believe she is well equipped to explain the experiences of a college student. A typical room has a a fridge, extra lamps for lighting other than the one ~ three built in lights provided. Many students also brought in surge protectors to expand the measly 2x2 outlets(2 outlets on each side of the room) they were given. Then there are the quad rooms, but thats another story.

I took on interviewing a few people already in hopes that I might better understand how a college dorming student lives so I can understand and predict when energy usage would be at its highs and lows. One interesting thing that I discussed with a few students is the question of weekend energy usage, because I don't dorm my energy usage usually spikes during the weekend, but this is probably because I stay in much of the time. I generalized that the same thing would happen during the weekends at the dorms, but I was quickly put in place by the more experienced dormers. They had explained to me that many students that live on the islands or even neighboring islands would often go home to their families on weekends (especially 3 day weekends for those in the neighboring islands). Other students were also very active opting to go out, these would offset the energy from the lack of classes and the time spent studying or completing assignments from students who would spend more time inside their dorms.

Together with these people, I've somewhat mapped out a trend that I would like to model our data after. Hopefully when we plug in a real monitor and get the apps hooked up to it, even if the watt data is off hopefully the trend lines will be spot on.

In other news, our sensors and monitors and now both working, all that is left is simulated test data to try and if first tests look good, we may be on our way to having all four types of meters working soon.