Hot. Especially here in California, and of course in Hawaii, where I live. Summer often means high air conditioning use and rolling brownouts.
Here’s a bit from the book about using “swarm logic” to manage cooling needs:
Bees are also key subjects of research on swarm logic, whereby the behavior of a large group of individuals— like a collective of bees, ants, slime molds, or even the layout of a city neighborhood— emerges not because of some central intelligence but due to a cascade of simple signals that trigger actions adding up to complex results. Software is a natural place to apply this strategy, as REGEN Energy of Toronto, Canada, has done to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. They rent or sell building owners wireless devices and software that listen and learn the power cycles of the building’s appliances and heating or cooling system. Then the devices coordinate to turn themselves on when needed and off when not needed, in order to reduce overall power use during times when electricity costs are highest. A typical building would have ten to forty controllers that work together as a single hive. Testing suggests that shopping malls, hospitals, hotels, or factories, can save as much as 30 percent on their peak- demand electricity fees.
Excerpt from The Shark’s Paintbrush, copyright Jay Harman. All rights reserved.
