From Space to Earth

Future Now !

One important thing my years of experience made me convinced in however, that any system - if successful -  is built on the same underlying principles. These are the principles of Systems Architecture, and they are universally applicable from Space to Earth, and from Sustainable Building to Sustainable Community.

 

This is The Brook - 24-condo residential building in North Vancouver built in 2009. It s the "greenest" building of this kind in Canada, if not North America. The building is a system which consists of many elements all of which work in highly synchronized mode in order to ensure that the whole system functions properly.    

A good comparison of the high-performance building is with a live body. As a body, it has bones - structure, skin - walls, and internal organs - heart, lungs and brain. 

The heart of the building is its Heating and Cooling System. It consists of integrated Geothermal / Solar thermal and on-demand boilers. Together they provide most comfortable temperature throughout the building and hot water for domestic needs. 

As in the body, there are sensors, which send information to the brain - building management system. It process the information and controls all other parts of the system to ensure they operate in the most efficient way.    

The Solar thermal system provides most of the hot water and supplements the geothermal system. Solar tanks are fed from the roof-mounted vacuum tube UV collectors. 

Future Now ?

I was born on October 4, 1957 - under the Sputnik star. From the early childhood I always thought the future is in space. I went to aeronautics and launching rockets into space. Some call me "Russian Rocket Scientist". Years went by and I realized that our future depends on the future of the planet we live on.  

Living still on Earth and not in space, one cannot fail to notice what is happening to the planet. Global pollution, greenhouse effect and global warming, depletion of fossil fuels (oil peak) combined with increased demand leads to rising energy costs. This puts a huge strain on the economy, businesses and an ordinary person. This trend will continue with ever increasing pace, this creating a real need and a push toward alternative solutions.  

 I came back to Earth, so to speak, in order to utilize my "space experience" for the better future here.

Do you see similarity between these two images above? The first is the ascent trajectory of the vehicle being launched into orbit. If the correct trajectory is not precisely hold on to, the vehicle may leave the Earth orbit or, more likely, will fall back and burn in the atmosphere. The second is the graph of global energy (read "oil") production and consumption. The possible outcomes are very similar to the previous case. As a civilization,  how can we find a thin line which will put us on sustainable trajectory?  

There is a number of various competing technologies on the market at the moment, from tested and proven successful, to new and exotic.  Questions arise:

1) How can end-user navigate in the flood of the offerings and choose what suites best for his/her specific conditions?

2) How can they make the best use of the chosen technology?

3) How do they integrate it into their building or business operation?

3) How can they ensure that the technology will continue to be efficient throughout its lifetime?

4) Finally, how can they overcome a real challenge of paying for the new technology, which is not cheap, 

even if it is getting less expensive?

We have answers to all those questions.

A perfect case for Systems Architecture, Part 2

Sun Peaks receives $400,000 Government Grant to build multi-use facility. The first phase of the project will involve structure and the envelope, suitable for events from early spring through late fall. The second phase will include ice-plant and convertible skating-rink.  

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A perfect case for Systems Architecture

Manta

Connect through Manta

A2W

Did I say all manufacturers are Japanese ? Well, not exactly. The French company CIAT has designed a high-temperature heat pump (65°C hot water) that would efficiently replace conventional  boilers down to -20C:  Aqualis Caleo

Fujitsu

I found it interesting - almost all major manufacturers of air-to-water heat pumps are Japanese - and almost all of those except Daikin, are involved in other industries - Mitsubishi (weapons, electronics, cars), Toshiba (electronics), Fujitsu. Looking at the last one, came across something which I could not resist re-posting.

Supercomputing Imperative

Launching ASCENT

Advanced System for Control Energy Network Technology (ASCENT) is the new kind of system providing the optimal solution for energy-efficiency while minimizing environmental impact of residential, commercial or other building. The system utilizes innovative approach to connecting various technology components and is built on the System Architecture principles of modularity, scalability, extensibility and evolve-ability.