Thornleigh Passivhaus

Our solar has been installed and generating for a year now... and enphase is really good at making data available. So I've been looking at our solar data and playing some what if games. For these purposes I am taking our electicity data from the enphase monthly reports - which do not include our garage power usage due to the way the our house is wired, but that usage is quite trivial so I am going to ignore it. The enphase system reports data (power generated, power imported, power consumed and power exported) in 15 minute intervals. I've include all the data which means I've got a little over 13 months of data to work with. Keep in mind that we have a great big tree on the east side of our house that significantly shades our solar panels for most of the morning, and a decent tree on the west that provides some partial shade especially in the later afternoon. Overall summary - daily average by month (kWh). Month Produced Consumed Exported Imported Net Jan 16.0 ...

Fall is here, but we just ticked out of the HRV's need to cool zone at the end of March. In March we ran the A/C on 4 days on a noon until 6pm schedule to take advantage of the solar production during that part of the day. The main source of cooling continues to be openning the windows during the cooler evening / nighttime hours, although towards the end of March we've not been doing much nighttime ventilation. THe HRV is working well and we done with the experimental period (I've sent the ERV core back to FanTech)! March is a "normal month" typically one adult is at work while the other is working from home, but we are increasingly spending days in the office. Percentage of hours in below, within, above the 20 - 25 °C target temperature range for the month. Inside / Outside % < 20 °C % 20 - 25 °C % > 25 °C inside 0% 84% 16% outside 34% 25% 41% Methods: I have taken the 5 minutely data from the wirelessTag sensors and calculated the median t...

The summer has been quite wet and cool - especially relative to the very hot and dry 2020 - making it easier to keep the house temeprature in range without using the A/C. In February we ran the A/C on 11 days on a noon until 6pm schedule to take advantage of the solar production during that part of the day. If the high temperture of the day is less than ~ 30 °C then I try to remember to turn it off, but sometimes I don't always remember and the A/C will turn on but not actually do any cooling. The main source of cooling continues to be openning the windows during the cooler evening / nighttime hours. THe H/ERV is working well and we are soon to the end of our experimental period (I managed to convince them to continue in the hope of getting some more hot day data, but the weather wasn't cooperative! Feb is back to school month in Oz, so the children are in school and typically one adult is at work while the other is working from home most days. Percentage of hours in be...

Might recognise some clips in this video about passive houses...

A new year... The hot weather is alternating with wet and cool weather making it easier to keep the house temeprature in range without using the A/C. Percentage of hours in below, within, above the 20 - 25 °C target temperature range for the month. Inside / Outside % < 20 °C % 20 - 25 °C % > 25 °C inside 1% 90% 9% outside 43% 33% 24% Methods: I have taken the 5 minutely data from the wirelessTag sensors and calculated the median temperature for each hour and determined the proportion of hours falling inside of the 20 - 25 °C target temperature (using the R functions 'aggregate' and 'hist'). Inside includes data from 12 wirelessTag sensors spread across every room of the house. Outside is the data from the wirelessTag sensors outside near the cubby house and HRV intake. The water wall and door data are not included. Quantile temperatures (°C) for the month. Inside / Outside Min 5% 25% Median 75% 95% Max inside 20 21 22 23 24 25 27 outside...

The end of the calendar year! The revised scripts were helping with the turnaround time... now I just ahev to get the JSON interface to wirelesstags working. By way of a random COVID update... Holiday time, so everyone was home (and due to the latest outbreak we do mean home) for the last couple weeks of the year! The wet and cool weather hit us hitting our solar generation, but making it easier to keep the house temeprature in range without using the A/C. Percentage of hours in below, within, above the 20 - 25 °C target temperature range for the month. Inside / Outside % < 20 °C % 20 - 25 °C % > 25 °C inside 1% 98% 2% outside 53% 34% 12% Methods: I have taken the 5 minutely data from the wirelessTag sensors and calculated the median temperature for each hour and determined the proportion of hours falling inside of the 20 - 25 °C target temperature (using the R functions 'aggregate' and 'hist'). Inside includes data from 12 wirelessTag sensors sp...

I should preface this post by saying that I am not the kind of person who likes to wear a jumper in the house during the middle of summer or shorts inside the house during the middle of winter. I get that the Passivhaus standard is all about specific temperature (20 - 25 °C) and specific humidity levels (not measured as relative humidity), but to me 18 °C feels great when you walk in from 8 °C and 27 °C is blessedly cool when it is 40 °C outside. By which I mean to say that as a biologist I undertand that the we experience things relative to our frame of reference, but I also like data. So over the past 12 months we have had a few bits and pieces on loan from Zehnder and FanTech to see if ERV or HRV are better in the Sydney climate. I've learned alot in the process... and as I understand it none of this is commercial in confidence - quite to the contrary they are pleased for people to know about how their products work in Sydney. Spoiler: It works really well and I would absolu...