The University of Ottawa and the Onset weather station on the Serson Ice shelf captured the break up of the Serson Ice shelf. The Onset station measured temperatures unheard of at the North Coast of Ellesmere Island with a maximum of 17.46 C in early August . The Onset station also captured the wind event when the ice shelf broke away. The station is being moved to the Milne Ice shelf next spring.

Ask yourself if there is any problem with your home that has bothered you. For instance, is there a room that is uncomfortable relative to the others? Is the HVAC system noisy when it runs? Do you wish that your utility bills were lower and is that a realistic wish? As a side note, I suspect that everyone wishes that their utility bills were lower, But, for instance, my worst case heating bill is about $50 for gas. That’s probably because Kathy (my bride) and I have a small house, reasonably tight and well insulated in a mild climate with a high efficiency gas furnace; probably not much that I can do to meaningfully reduce the bill. That doesn’t mean there aren’t meaningful things I can do to improve the way I use gas, which is a non-renewable resource that generates atmospheric carbon when I burn it. But, given the modest cost (currently) to heat my home, the perspective driving the desire to improve things will need to be more holistic rather than economic - a lesson I think for our current bottom line driven society. Anyway, the point of these questions is to find out if there is something you want to target a test at. Probably 50% or more of the tests performed by commissioning providers in the field are targeted at solving a specific problem or verifying a specific level of performance. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn something if you don’t have a problem to target with your test. You can do an information gathering test and find out exactly how your house performs. Here are some ideas that come to mind.

Deploy a data logger outside that tracks relative humidity (RH) and temperature and then deploy several loggers inside tracking the same thing along with maybe some indication of occupancy like light level or the operation of an electric light, and maybe one that tracks furnace operation. Then plot concurrent data to see how the environment inside your house responds to changes in the ambient environment and the use patterns. For instance, what happens to the RH inside when you take a shower? At night, if your furnace has night set-back, how fast does the temperature in the house drop off relative to how fast the temperature outside drops off. How about RH? How does RH compare to specific humidity or dew point which is a more absolute indication of moisture level? (Some data loggers will calculate dewpoint an specific humidity basedo on the parameters they measure.  But if not, you can figure it out from a psych chart). How does absolute humidity inside and outside compare and track?

Deploy a current or kW logger on your power panel and on some critical (large) loads like the your dishwasher or your washer and dryer or your water heater (if it’s electric) and plot concurrent data to see how much of an impact on total load each appliance has. Add more loggers to other circuits serving light loads and plug loads to see how you use energy in your house. Only do this if you feel comfortable putting CTs on your circuits or if you know someone who is an electrician or who is comfortable doling that for you if you aren’t.  (Electricity, even at the voltages we use in our homes can be dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing or aren’t comfortable working around it.  Never do anything with electrical wiring that you are not comfortable doing and/or have not been properly trained to do.)

Put a logger on your furnace to measure differential temperature and pick up fan operation. Or deploy or add another one to monitor filter pressure drop. Deploy another outside to track ambient conditions or download the data from the web using one of the techniques/sites discussed in the Functional Testing Guide.  Use a rotating vane anemometer to traverse your return grilles and get an idea of air flow. Then, simply log the operating of the system and see what it tells you. For instance, how does the actual capacity of the furnace compare to the rated capacity? How does the cycling time vary with changes in outdoor temperature? If you have a night set back thermostat, how does that impact the operation of the system vs. the way it operates once the house is warmed up or, at night once the house has cooled off to the set-back temperature? How long does it take your filter to load up? (Generally, filters should be changed on pressure drop, not appearance or time ).

Use the rotating vane anemometer to traverse your return grills and get a feel for total system flow. Then traverse your supply grills and see how the flow is distributed. Is it fairly uniform on a cfm per square foot basis, or are their areas with a lot of air and areas with less? If the distribution is not uniform, is that because of the loads in the areas served? Or does your system need balanced? (Maybe there is a reason that one area is always hot or cold!)

If you have an electric water heater log its power consumption and then use that data to compare what would happen if you heated your water using one of the heat pump based technologies that’s out there or using a conventional gas water heater or using one of the high efficiencyinstantaneous type heaters. Look at both the source and site energy implications and the atmospheric carbon implications.

Some of you may be thinking “that’s all well and good, but what if I don’t have a data logger?” If you live in California in one of the public utility service districts, you are in luck. You can borrow a logger from the Pacific Energy Center’s tool lending library . This is (as us 60’s generation folks would say) a “free to the people” resource that is available to you as a utility customer. Many of the private utilities in California and other states offer a similar service. Another option is to simply buy a logger. For under $100, you can be off and running. For about $300, you can be logging just about anything.

Located in Hanover, Maine, Howard Pond has joined a growing list of lakes that will be monitored for the possible effects of global warming.

Dr. Dan Buckley from the University of Maine at Farmington is collaborating with other scientists and organizations. They hope to place several HOBO® Pendant loggers in 100 lakes across Maine over the next two years. The loggers are going to be used to measure and record temperature and light intensity at various depths.

Buckley recently described details of the monitoring project to Howard Pond residents. “While melting polar ice caps and glaciers get more of the attention in the global warming discussion,” explained Buckley, “climate change can have a dramatic effect on the ecology of lakes.” According to Buckley, projections show that in 50 years, this region will have the overall climate of southern Connecticut. “The scary thing is the lakes are changing faster than the air,” says Buckley.

A study of Lake Superior showed that since the 1980s, the average surface water temperature of the lake has risen about 4 degrees Fahrenheit. “In the same period”, said Buckley, “the atmospheric temperature has gone up 1 degree Fahrenheit.” “In this region, “ice out” dates are 10 to 15 days earlier than they were in the 19th century and early 20th centuries,” explained Buckley. For example, in the 1880s ice in the Rangeley lakes typically went out in mid-May; however, since the 1960s there has been a dramatic change - ice out has been happening earlier. “Some researchers,” said Buckley, “have suggested earlier ice out is the reason that lake temperatures are climbing at an accelerated rate.” This warming trend could result in the loss of cold-water fish, such as trout and salmon, from some lakes

“As for Howard Pond,” Buckley said, “The prediction will likely not be as dire.” According to Buckley, the pond is 118 feet deep which is unusually deep relative to its surface area. That characteristic will help protect it from the effects of global warming.

Howard Pond residents are not taking anything for granted. The pond’s Preservation Association will finance the placement of two pendant loggers. The loggers will record and measure temperature and light at 15-minute intervals and remain in the pond for up to 208 days. Buckley will then use the data to compare it to the data from other lakes in Maine.

The Howard Pond project will likely start next year.

In order to determine a building’s energy efficiency, it is necessary to accurately assess its performance. Energy benchmarking provides an effective way to evaluate the energy consumption of a building to help identify potential energy cost savings opportunities.

Data loggers are important diagnostic tools that provide base-line energy measurements. Data loggers can be used to monitor a building’s energy performance which may include monitoring major energy-consuming equipment such as compressed air systems, boilers, hot water systems, chilled water systems, air handling units, indoor and outdoor temperature and electrical usage.

There are several factors to consider when benchmarking a facility, including:

1. Identify benchmark goals: Determine the scale and objectives of the benchmarking project. Do you want to verify a facility’s base-line performance or perhaps identify operational and maintenance issues?
2. Obtain documentation: Gather information about the facility. Utility bills offer history on the energy usage and cost associated with its existing performance. Other important documentation can include: floor plans, mechanical equipment schedules, and drawings of the buildings duct work and mechanical systems.
3. Design a monitoring plan: Based on the information collected from step two, a monitoring plan can now be created. It is important to determine the monitoring metrics you want to include in the scope of the monitoring plan. Common monitoring variables include temperature, relative humidity, kWh, light on/off, and other HVAC system performance measurements which may include differential pressure gauge pressure and flow.
4. Setup monitoring equipment: Note: A trained electrician should install the monitoring equipment in live electrical panels. It is important to select the optimum logging interval for your application. When monitoring transducers outputting pulses (such as kWh transducers for example) a logging interval no shorter than every 5-minute should be used.
5. Collect and analyze data: After the data has been collected that was outlined in the monitoring plan, the data can be analyzed to create a details of the facility’s energy consumption. After analyzing the benchmarking results, it is important to identify cost saving opportunities and implement improvements.

Optimizing a building’s performance can improve energy usage and decrease utility costs while providing benefits to the environment. Benchmarking is an important way to accomplish these goals. It can provide information on how a building is currently performing and establish objectives for the future.

Resource Links:

: STEP 2.3: Benchmark http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=assess_performance.benchmark

: U.S. Green Building Council http://www.usgbc.org/Default.aspx

Live data from a HOBO U30 remote monitoring system collecting benchmark data can be seen here.

Nicole Goldman, owner of ‘g’ Green Design Center, a Massachusetts-based company specializing in green building materials, recently installed an experimental green roof on her home located in Woods Hole, MA. Goldman’s green roof is covered with a layer of synthetic and natural drainage layers, soil, and a variety of low-maintenance plants.

To monitor conditions on her green roof, Goldman uses Onset’s HOBO U30/GSM Remote Monitoring System to track air temperature, humidity and soil moisture. When the water content in the soil drops below a specific level, the system sends an alarm notification to activate an irrigation system. Additionally, the data that the logger provides helps Goldman identify which plants thrive under what conditions.
Live data from Goldman’s green roof can be accessed here.

Research has shown that high-relative humidity levels also support the growth of dust mites, molds and bugs that can lead to increased allergy symptoms and reduce indoor air quality (IAQ). However, little to no measured data is available on actual indoor humidity levels in homes across the United States.

Concerned about the impact that relative humidity has on a building’s performance, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development paired up with Steven Winter Associates, Inc. (SWA), an architectural and engineering research and consulting firm, to gather temperature and humidity data in more than 50 homes across the country.

Three different regions are being targeted for the study – the warm, humid southeast, the cold northeast and the Pacific Northwest. To complete the study, household characteristic data will also be collected during the initial site-visit to the home, including occupancy levels, insulation levels, equipment efficiencies, envelope leakage and duct leakage.

To monitor temperature and humidity levels, SWA engineers selected HOBO® U12 data loggers from Onset.
The battery-powered devices will measure and record humidity levels around-the clock – even during power outages – and accompanying HOBOware® Pro software will convert the data into time-stamped graphs that can be displayed on a PC or Mac.

The data collected from this study will support efforts already underway by the ASHRAE Standard Committee 160P on “Design Criteria for Preventing Moisture Damage in Buildings” and others to develop moisture modeling tools and related technical standards. These models and standards will help improve a home’s performance by minimizing conditions associated with high moisture levels. Test homes for this study are currently being identified, and most initial site visits and data logger installations should be complete by the beginning of this summer.

Here at Onset, we’re using our own energy monitoring products to monitor electricity consumption and other parameters in our 40,000 square foot facility on Cape Cod. In particular, we’re tracking kilowatt hours and air temperature in various sections of the buildings, and in a very short period of time we’ve learned a tremendous amount about our own energy usage patterns.

Live data from one of the monitoring systems can be accessed here.

Karen Christopherson, a volunteer researcher for Evergreen Trout Unlimited, has been using TidbiT loggers for the past several years to monitor rising water temperature conditions. “We are monitoring the stream temperatures in order to show that temperatures vary significantly,” explains Christopherson. “At times, temperatures exceeded the EPA mandated temperature limits for cold-water fisheries. We had noticed a fish die-off in 2000 and 2002, during high water temperatures.”

In order to prove their case that water temperatures were rising, and prompt action by the EPA, state, and the local agencies, Christopherson and her team placed the loggers in various stream locations to monitor temperature conditions at an hourly rate.

“So far, we have succeeded in getting cooperation of state and local agencies to help the stream. This benefits not just the trout, but all other wildlife, as well as the community. It all started with our Trout Unlimited group gathering temperature data with the TidbiTs in order to prove our point - that stream temps were too high,” concludes Christopherson.

Related links:

: Coral reefs in trouble, scientists warn http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/07/08/decliningreefs.ap/index.html

Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) are studying five strains of New England oysters bred for disease resistance or chosen from disease resistant stock. These strains are grown alongside one another at four sites throughout New England.

John Murt, a researcher at the Marine Biology Laboratory at WHOI, has been using TidbiTs to monitor temperature conditions at all of the growout locations. “Prior to using the loggers, our team would take monthly field sampling trips to each site to record environmental data as well as growth and mortality of each oyster strain,” explains Murt. “Without the data loggers, we would only have a single monthly water temperature recording instead of the daily samples we collect with the loggers.”

The loggers allow Murt and his team to record water temperatures year round without having to rely on someone being in the field collecting data manually. “With temperature being the driving factor of water-borne bacteria, the data set provided by the loggers is essential for us to better understand when the conditions are right for these bacteria to impact either oyster populations or oyster farms,” says Murt.

According to Murt, similar research for Quahogs will start this summer. Three strains are currently being grown in hatcheries and will be seeded into growout patches in local harbors.

“The manpower saved by deploying data loggers means that we get a much better data set for a lot less effort. This is a win-win situation for everyone,” concludes Murt.