SheevaPlug / off-grid write-up in The Register

[DamonHD]

See: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/11/diy_zero_energy_home_server/

Now I have another one to do about our superinsulation project!

Rgds

Damon

[independent]

Really good article Damon--liked it a lot! Thanks for the pointer

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

Cool!

I purchased three Shiva Plugs a while back (one for me to develop on,
one for my wife ditto, one for bringing the first app live), intending to
do just such a thing for the Nevada house.  (Mostly for remote-accessible
security monitoring when away.)

But the city our CA townhouse is in has just passed a 3 1/2% tax on
utilities - including electricity, gas, phone, internet, cable/satellite TV,
phone cards, ...  We were major "No on <the tax>" campaigners.
So as a point of honor we're going to minimize our utility bill at the
townhouse to minimize the tax we pay.

Much of the electric load is two turn-of-the-millennium desktop
computers running 24/7, acting as a firewall and a mail/file server
respectively.  Replacing them with a Shiva Plug system and using
fast laptops for actual work should result in a big cut in electric usage,
bill, and tax.

(Good 'ol California has socialist electric rates with brackets, like
tax brackets, carrying wildly different rates.  Like 5x between the
baseline and third tier.  Any savings is at your current
screw-the-"rich"-wastrels top-tier rate.  And then the new tax is on
the dollar amount of the bill...)

[DamonHD]

In the same vein: a piece on superinsulation with aerogel:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/24/diy_insulation_with_aerogel/

Rgds

Damon

[wooferhound]

The Sheeva Plug has been updated to the Dream Plug
http://www.thinq.co.uk/2011/2/1/new-it-announces-dreamplug-arm-box/

[DamonHD]

Thanks WH: that looks like a sensibly-repackaged 'GuruPlug'.

Rgds

Damon

[Bruce S]

Damon;
 Here at work, we have had problems with some of the SD cards as well. We use them for 24 & 48 Holter monitor systems when hospitals send patients home.
Also our 2.5edge SIM card based 12L systems had early SSD card "issues"
Which brand are you currently using?
I can PM you with the types we've gone to that seems to have slowed the lockup problem to nil.

Bruce S

[DamonHD]

Actually, the SD cards have been completely fine for me; the storage problem I've had seems to have been with the USB driver for my USB thumbdrive.  I think an OS update would fix it, but I'd have to change distro too...

Rgds

Damon

[Bruce S]

Oh, ok. I did read in your write up that would entail going the Unbunto route.
Nice write up BTW.
Cheers
Bruce S 

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

One of my colleagues got a two-gig-ethernet version of the Shiva plug, which would have been particularly nice for a fireawll.  Except the darned thing had a fan and the fan was LOUD.  The GigE interfaces ran hot enough that two of 'em would overheat the box without cooling.

This one looks like it may have solved (or ignored) the cooling issue, perhaps by using a different GigE support chip.

I don't expect this to be a problem since, even running it as a firewall with an external broadband modem, you'd be able to run one of the ether ports as only 100M (or even 10M if the broadband connection was slow enough) and probably save a lot on heat.

On the other hand, RE homes are likely to lack or skimp on air conditioning and this might cause the "server room" to get rather hot occasionally.  So that's something to watch.

Would be interesting to find out if these can accept house battery power directly, rather than requiring an inverter.

[DamonHD]

These *do* accept mains power directly, though I run mine via a 5V switching reg from my 12V off-grid system.

This DreamPlug looks like the GuruPlug with the power supply taken away from the rest, and no fan.

So potentially very interesting.

I might be able to run a USB-powered ADSL router with this, and use the WiFi as an access point, so I could dump my current ~8W of stand-alone ADSL model for ~4W of extra load on the 12V system.  Very tempting.

Rgds

Damon