

C++ programming pioneer hacks off-grid, DIY, smart home - yason
http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/c-programming-pioneer-hacksf-grid-diy-smart-home/

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6ren
Reminds me a bit of Paul Lutus <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1681247>

Automated homes seem to be like video phones: common in science-fiction, we
now have them, but they (curiously) aren't used that much.

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bff
Smart and automated homes are closely related to my research so I'll chime in
on this. Even though the technology exists to do lots of cool things no one
has built a modular system that you can mix and match pieces to.

Right now each "smart" feature would be completely separate from the rest so
you can't amortize the cost of each one. So if you want a home security
system, an automatic door and window locker, and an item tracking system you
will need to pay for and install three separate systems. Since the utility of
some of those systems just isn't that great people only install the system
that has the highest economic benefit -- the home security system. Everything
else costs too much for too little benefit.

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pcvarmint
"C++ programming pioneer"? I'd never heard of him before. From the headline I
thought they were talking about Bjarne or somebody like that.

And 10,000 lines is not a lot. What's so special about this guy's C++ code?

Sorry to be negative, but the article sounds full of hype.

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ginko
The 10,000 lines of code are for controlling the systems in his house.

I would guess he wrote a lot more in his career.

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Loic
Look at the pictures of the house (cf. comment by topbanana), the house is
beautiful, just a pleasure to look at the clean minimalism.

This goes in the same direction than this house:
<http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm> Corresponding HN discussion:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=619511>

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topbanana
Some pics of his house:
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/faircompanies/sets/721576286741...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/faircompanies/sets/72157628674194607/)

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VMG
Burning wood isn't particularly "smart"

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halfwave
Why ?

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VMG
Unless he has high-tech stoves, it is pretty polluting. Smoke contains many
toxic chemicals.

[http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/is-burning-
wood-f...](http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/is-burning-wood-for-
heat-really-green.html)

~~~
burgerbrain
Hardly anything wrong with them as far as I can tell, provided you don't have
neighbours. I would suspect that all the wood people burn in North America as
fuel is greatly offset by all the forest fires people in North America put
out. Large-scale adoption of course is not a bright idea, but that's not what
this guy is doing.

(And it _is_ carbon neutral, so if you're going to burn something, better wood
than fossil fuels from that standpoint.)

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VMG
> (And it is carbon neutral, so if you're going to burn something, better wood
> than fossil fuels from that standpoint.)

It is carbon neutral only if you plant a tree. Which you can do anyway.

Burning gas or oil, which have a better co2/kwh ratio and planting a tree is
better than burning a tree and planting a new one.

~~~
burgerbrain
It's carbon neutral in the sense that the CO2 it puts in the air was taken out
of the air a decade ago, not millions of years ago.

>Which you can do anyway.

Buying wood funds planting trees. Buying gas and oil do not.

~~~
VMG
> It's carbon neutral in the sense that the CO2 it puts in the air was taken
> out of the air a decade ago, not millions of years ago.

That doesn't matter at all.

> Buying wood funds planting trees. Buying gas and oil do not.

Buying wood to burn it also increases the price, reducing the use of wood for
better things.

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cageface
_and he wired it for pure DC lighting (which makes sense with solar, but
Amelang also likes how “peaceful” DC lighting feels)._

Congratulations are due to him for his resourceful unreasonableness but this
sounds a little tinfoil-hat to me.

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chao-
In what manner? I can't say I have an opinion about the way DC lighting looks,
but if it made for easier work with the solar power of an already custom-
beyond-reason job, why not?

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cageface
He says it "feels" different. I think it's very unlikely that people can
perceive AC power cycles.

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gouranga
You can "feel" AC - not the power but the sounds that it creates inside
devices. There is a resident "hum" from most mains AC devices, particularly
energy bulbs, linear tranformers, CRTs, switch mode power supplies, heating,
appliances etc.

If you're all DC with LED lighting etc, there is no 50/60Hz hum any more.

You genuinely don't notice it until it's not there any more.

