Whose Home is wasting more energy, yours or your neighbours? by drgeoff

Hi Folks, Thank you for your constructive feedback. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RE: we'd like to see this for our own homes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I agree, I wanted to see this for my own home; in fact, I began this project because my house was cold. As noted on our website ( www.saveheat.co/team.php ) under My Profile: "...Geoff is an Associate Professor in GIScience at the University of Calgary, Department of Geography, and an ISEEE fellow. One day Geoff came home to find his newly built house... cold. This worried Geoff, as he took great pride in his triple pane Low-E windows, his high-energy efficiency furnace and his R50+ attic insulation... and yet his home remained... cold. He thought to himself '...wouldn't it be great if I could pull out my mobile device, click on Google Maps, tap on my house, and automatically bring up a thermal image showing me where the waste heat was leaving my house, how much it was costing me (in terms of money and green-house gases), where to go to get it fixed, and how much I could save if it was done correctly... and even better, what if I could do this all for free?' ... and so the HEAT project was born..." ------------------------------ RE: Interface: ------------------------------ Over the years we have had some very useful feedback regarding the interface. Typically, the message is simplify, simplify, simplify...to this end we have developed the current version, but we are currently working on 2 different VGI (Volunteered Geographic Info) interfaces that allow folks to be actively engaged right within their browser interface. "…When given a choice ... take both…" We want my grandmother to be able to use this interface, as well as more technically sophisticated folks. Thus, like the scales of observation (house, community, city) we will provide different levels of sophistication and opportunities for engagement. Eventually culminating in inter/intra community and city saveheat competitions. RE: Engagement: We have begun collaboration with the Calgary Real-Estate Board on an energy efficiency dashboard that includes the current HEAT related scores, hotspots, energy models etc, as well as other useful goodies, recommended to us by users and clients- and as you have noted, items that you would personally like to use. The line between an interface that is more ‘scientific’ vs. ‘entertainment-oriented’ is both close and broad depending on one's perspective...Our mantra is to develop, test and implement an interface that is functional, engaging, and meaningful - we believe we are doing this, and are always willing to listen to others great ideas. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ RE: providing information otherwise invisible to homeowners ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ We agree. You cannot change what you do not measure. We are providing strong scientific evidence of invisible waste heat and its costs (enviro’ and financial) with cutting edge technology. When possible, we will publish the algorithms behind our HEAT Scores and other ideas within free and open source peer-reviewed science journals so that we are transparent in our application of our technologies. We welcome constructive public- and peer-review to strengthen our program. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ RE: What if the information is 'pushed' to customers (e.g. in their utility bill package)? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thank you. This is a very good idea, and we are currently in the process of trying to collaborate with several Utilities to do just this. "...However, utility companies are typically in the business to sell more energy, not to conserve it..." Thus, we are finding it challenging to engage the 'right' socially cognizant companies whom recognize the importance of establishing long term relationships with their clients, rather than simply selling an energy service/commodity in an increasingly competitive market. As you have noted, by incorporating HEAT or even better MyHEAT (making it personalized for individuals, communities and cities) within a companies energy service portfolio, they will be offering not only their existing energy services, but also a socially responsible mechanism that can be used to map, model and monitor 'invisible' waste heat - from which new (conservation) services could be offered to reduce this heat loss. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RE: One question we have is about subsequent action. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "...HEAT's mission is to show (i) 'what urban energy efficiency looks like', (ii) 'where it is located', (iii) 'what it costs' and (iv)'what to do about it'. We believe that if people could see the waste heat they generate and if they knew how much it cost (financially and to the environment), that they would want to take action. We want to show them how..." With our focus on the end game (step iv), we have invested significant resources developing (steps i-iii), in part because this is where our current expertise lies. To show folks 'what to do about it' also brings with it significant commercial potential/opportunity. We have invested much in the science and technology of steps (i-iii). These steps are things we can 'control' relatively well. However, making a recommendation for an energy audit, or renovations, etc, (especially in every new city we will acquire data over) will require collaborating with trusted groups and individuals whom provide a product with integrity and support. To this end we have begun collaboration with several notable builders including HGTVs Holmes on Homes - to develop an online portfolio - a recommendation tool - to provide participants with accurate, meaningful and honest recommendations to solve their wasteheat problems. This is not available in the current online version. We believe that the new information/solutions we provide also comes with important responsibility regarding product/service recommendations. While we are working on scaling the HEAT project to the full city of Calgary and its 1.2M+ citizens, we are also actively developing a ‘waste heat solution recommendation framework’ with trusted companies. This will need to be replicated in each city we work with. Peer Motivation is a powerful ingredient that is central to HEAT. Both in promulgating the (i) amount, location and cost of (home, community and city) waste heat as well as (ii) monitoring (and continually updating with the latest information) the potential solutions we provide. Our goal is to make the HEAT Geoweb service free... but to make it free, someone needs to pay... We believe future support for HEAT will come from trusted companies providing excellent products/services/solutions recommended by the HEAT project. These companies will be held to very high standards - and as part of our VGI and planned online MyHEAT Community - will be openly reviewed by their customers. We believe that free and open HEAT Scores, HEAT Maps, and Hotspots along with customer feedback will play a strong and important role in holding the Green-Construction and Green-Renovation industry to high standards. Efficient homes means more $$$ in the pockets of citizens, more comfortable and safe homes, less energy consumption and reduced CO2e.

I really like this, though I feel there is too much weight on R&D/Admin costs v on the ground action costs.

*** Dr Geoff: Response to July 01, 2013 - Judges Request *** As per the July 01, 2013 Judges requests, we report on three items. Specifically: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) JUDGES: "...is there a link to help you with an energy audit? ..." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACTION: We have worked for several weeks to follow up with the judges recommendation to include the ability to book a home energy assessment directly from our HEAT website ( www.saveheat.ca ). I am pleased to report that as of July 23 we have conducted stringent due-diligence resulting in the implementation of our first link to a commercial service (4 Elements: www.4elementsdesign.net ) whom are certified to conduct a number of home energy audits. Specifically, 4 Elements provides design, energy modeling, consultation, testing and verification for the built environment. They work with LEED for Homes, EnerGuide for Homes and many other home certification systems. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (2) JUDGES: "...Can you provide a link to a guide to energy-saving home improvements? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACTION: We have included a recent guide (Dec 2012) published by Natural Resources Canada's Office of Energy Efficiency, called "Keeping the Heat In" ( www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca/publications/residential/8584 ). This updated guide is designed to educate on basic principles of building science and to provide guidance in home retrofit projects such as insulation and air sealing improvements. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (3) JUDGES: "...we think there is a lot of opportunity in the interface you design, and that it could be a determinant of success. A few different directions were mentioned: entertainment-oriented or a more scientific design..." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACTION: We have not 'gamified' the project, however we have included a simple, very useful and somewhat addictive 'volunteered geographic information'(VGI)system that allows users to be actively engaged with the project by selecting the roof material of the house they are currently viewing in the integrated HEAT version of Google Street-view ( www.saveheat.co/why-use-vgi.php ). These data are combined with roof material classes and MLS (i.e, Real-estate) information to define the appropriate emissivity values to associate to each roof ( http://www.saveheat.co/what-is-emissivity.php ). This allows us to provide users with 'real' kinetic temperature values rather than 'relative temperature values, which are then directed back to our energy model estimates and HEAT score calculations. - Dr Geoff.

*** Dr Geoff: Response to Projectneutral *** Dear Projectneutral, Thank you for your kind response to promote and participate in the HEAT project. We would be very pleased to take you up on your offer. FYI: We are currently working with new colleagues in the Clean Air Partnership ( www.cleanairpartnership.org ) to develop a collaboration of municipalities and related industries to support the creation of a MyHEAT GTHA. I gave a webinar to 16-20+ municipal and industry representatives on July 18. The online resources for this webinar can be found here: ( www.cleanairpartnership.org/node/715 ). If we are successful with this collaboration, we would be very pleased to incorporate your research/monitoring findings to test our results. Please stay in touch. Regards, Gf.

Thank you for your constructive comments. As noted in our Mission statement ( http://www.saveheat.co/about.php ) "...HEAT's mission is to show 'what urban energy efficiency looks like', 'where it's located', 'what it costs' and 'what to do about it'. We believe that if people could see the waste heat they generate and if they knew how much it cost (financially and to the environment), that they would want to take action. We want to show them how..." Our goal in this competition, is not specifically to win the $10K cash prize (NB: if successful, any funds will go to support my graduate student team). Rather our key objective is to bring our ideas, our science and our vision to the broader public mind-set and provide them with meaningful opportunities to be engaged to reduce their consumption, and to use their (energy related) resources wisely. As noted in our Vision Statement ( http://www.saveheat.co/about.php ) "...HEAT's vision is to Empower the Urban Energy Efficiency movement by providing free, accurate and regularly updated waste heat solutions for the world..." ... and we are actively engaged, beginning with one city at a time... If you want to find out whose home is wasting more energy, yours or your neighbors, we would invite you to visit us at www.saveheat.co Thank you for your consideration. Dr Geoff & HEAT Team ( www.saveheat.co/team.php )

*** Dr Geoff: Response to Carlos*** Hi Carlos, thank you for your vote, and comment. OPower certainly has some great things going for it and is making significant changes - especially in the US. Ideally, we would like to see an integration of our technologies with their corporate strength and Industry partnerships. We can relatively quickly fly a city and acquire thermal imagery that shows the heat leaving buildings without having to negotiate with energy companies or tangle with privacy issues regarding consumption data. As we near the end of our Phase II development (30K+ homes), we are able to create a reasonably quick turn-around of a couple of days to a week from data acquisition to web-enablement (depending on acquisition size). This means that we can very quickly provide web-accessible waste-heat information along with associated energy consumption estimates. Another critical component of our project is the visualization capacities and world-wide user interaction capabilities. We believe that this form of open-access will provide significant user interaction, community development, and opportunities for reducing energy consumption.