Re: Feasibility of wiring a house for distributed low voltage?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Andrew W. Donoho" <awd () DDG com>
Date: April 23, 2009 6:59:30 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Feasibility of wiring a house for distributed low  
voltage?

For IP:

On Apr 21, 2009, at 8:47 AM, John Bosley <jandpbosley () verizon net>  
wrote:

> My friend wriites:
>
> "Moving right along- here is a fantasy I have had. Many of our  
> little toys and some useful devices run on low voltage, provided by  
> myriad transformers, which are always on, always drawing power, if  
> my high school physics is correct. A house of the future could be  
> wired for a single standardized (by decree) low voltage power  
> circuitry, plugs in every room. supplied from a single  
> transformer.All toys would plug into it. Probably these little  
> corkscrew lights could be made to work just as well on low voltage.  
> There could still be some 120 or 220 outlets for motors and heaters,  
> I guess .Do you know of a flagpole to run that up?"



Due to the costs of transitioning, the goal of wiring houses for low  
voltage is unachievable.

Let me show why.

These costs are similar to any wide scale distributed reengineering.  
These activities have to be paid for by someone. Here in Austin, where  
I was a former Resource Management Commissioner, we have been trying  
to find ways to mandate more energy conservation investments in both  
new and existing houses. (We've had conservation programs for over 25  
years. Most of the low hanging fruit has been picked.) I have two  
example situations - one for new construction and another for existing  
construction.

We are trying to get to net-zero energy capable home construction  
codes by 2015. In our most recent code effort, we were unable to  
overcome objections to requiring 2 and 4 pin CFL sockets for built-in  
fixtures. There were two battling estimates: one was that it would  
only take an extra $40 and the other said the requirement cost an  
extra $250. (I'm happy to have the debate about whether this was a  
good idea but that point is not relevant to the question above.) Let's  
put this in perspective, we are talking about a modest change on a  
product that has a construction cost well in excess of $100,000.  
Nonetheless, this was defeated by a rather potent combination of  
political forces. With respect to our questioner, it shows the  
challenges his low-voltage wiring change will face. (Low voltage  
wiring is even more expensive. It is a duplicate of an existing wire  
network.) The price combined by the need to also bring all of the  
gadget vendors along makes this a non-starter.

Requiring something like this for a renovation is even harder. Our  
idea was to put a point of sale conservation upgrade requirement on  
house sales. This, of course, was made possible because the mortgage  
money is generally available to fund the new rework. (We're talking  
things like insulation, solar screens, etc.) This was defeated by a  
similar coalition of realtors, builders and home owners. I conclude  
from my experience that there is no public will to make the investment.

Anon,
Andrew

P.S. I'm sure someone on IP will want to claim that our proposed  
funding mechanisms were wrong. I contend, with a great deal of  
experience informing my opinion, that any proposal is going to meet  
rather vigorous opposition. It isn't a matter of mechanism but of  
societal will.


____________________________________
Andrew W. Donoho
Donoho Design Group
awd () DDG com, PGP Key ID: 0x81D0F250
+1 (512) 750-7596 (m)

"When you can't imagine how things are going to change,
        that doesn't mean that nothing will change.
                It means that things will change in ways that are unimaginable."
                        Bruce Sterling, January 02, 2009












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