Incredibly Niche: I made a tray and rack for the Ambient Weather wireless outdoor particulate air quality monitor

maiskanzler, 9 months ago

Looks neat! Do you have more details you can share about your HVAC system? What are you measuring, what are your actors?

solarbird, 9 months ago

HVAC assist system. It cut our peak electricity bill by 40% year over year under similar conditions, too, with substantially better performance.

But really it's very simple. All I'm doing is improving the effectiveness of very traditional methods of temperature control by being more accurate and much more aggressive about exchanging air in and out when appropriate. Obviously in the middle of a 90-110F heat wave that's not going to matter, so it's more of a northern thing - but it really does a great deal in a lot of climates. (And in spring and autumn in more southern climates, I suppose.)

One of the key elements is that outdoor temperature varies a lot from point to point on the property, so we have air exchange measured at five points around the house, keyed to local indoor vs. local outdoor air temperature. (And air quality and a few other things, of course.) The actual air exchange is a combination of the original air-exchange system plus just opening and closing windows. We overcool at night with air exchange so we're always below ambient outdoor temperature during the day.

It's remarkably effective. We went from... well, it varied a lot, but +7 to +10 F above ambient to -7 to -5 below. (I was doing all this in C internally but F because I was talking about it to Americans.)

Again, I'm in an environment where this is particularly effective, but it costs so little and saves so much money and energy use I have to think it has some general utility many places.

Here are some of my posts about it:

https://solarbird.net/blog/tag/ambient-hvac/

maiskanzler, 9 months ago

Wow that’s super cool! Thanks for sharing!

PdeT, 9 months ago

To me, this is the core of 3D printing and why I got into it. Our house needs loads of little custom solutions, and that’s where 3D printing really shines.

glimse, 9 months ago

I can’t justify the purchase this year but this is the #1 reason I want one. Stupid little things to make my life easier and save me money.

My headphones currently hang off my WFH desk with a wood clamp

nilloc, 9 months ago

I don’t need this in any way, but I’ve got loads of similar 3D printed fixes for insane design mistakes around my house too.

Nice job!

solarbird, 9 months ago

Thanks! And honestly it's one of the best parts of 3D printing, being able to come up with things like this.

The really annoying part is that the indoor matching sensor, the companion to this one? That USB port sticks out the side, like it was designed by a sane person. xD

CMDRBULB, 9 months ago

@solarbird @nilloc Small silver lining, at least on the bottom it's less likely to get water in the USB port, I love fixes like this!

solarbird, 9 months ago

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. More sense than the Magic Mouse, at least. xD