| Take the box out of the garage and unpack it. Put the car and water sensor to the side.
Plug the multi sensor into a black adapter. Then plug it into a smaller outlet on the back of the house.
Plug the home into the wall.
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| To open the roof, turn the two metal hasps. Then lift the metal straps.
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| Unpack the long, white boxes. Choose one fridge and one washer. Set them up on each side of the kitchen.
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| Loosen the strap that holds the tablet. Turn on the tablet.
A phone or tablet is used to control most home automation systems.
The power button is on the side. It looks like a circle. Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds, then let it go. Keep doing this until it turns on.
If the tablet does not turn on, plug the cord into the tablet. Wait 5 minutes before you turn it on.
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| Your tablet will show one of three screens after you swipe up:
Option 1) The smart home interface. This is a web page in the Chrome browser. If you are on a different page, type the address (http://192.168.1.2) into the address bar. Press Go.
Option 2) The Android menu screen. You should see 2 icons. Open the Chrome browser. If you are on a different page, type the address (http://192.168.1.2) into the address bar. Press Go.
Option 3) The Smart Grid Game. This looks like a cartoon. To exit the game, swipe down from the top of the screen. Click the square icon on the bottom right. Swipe all windows to the left. Follow the instructions from option 2 to open Chrome.
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| Make sure you are on the home page.
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| Explore this page. Tap icons to control the home. You can click on rounded buttons and items in the virtual home. Square buttons may not let you click them.
When you are finished exploring, answer the questions below.
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| Which controls on this page do you like the best? Why?
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| Which controls on this page do you think could help save energy? How?
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| Dip the metal ends of the water sensor in water. What happens?
A popup should appear on-screen alerting you to water in your basement. |
| Why would it help to put a water sensor in your basement?
Water damage can be very expensive. By receiving an early warning, it is easier to stop the flood and/or move belongings out of the way. |
| Go to the Challenges page (trophy icon).
For each challenge, follow the on-screen prompts. Many of the challenges have multiple parts, so continue through each part until you see the completion notification at the bottom of the screen. You may need to scroll to see new information which has appeared below the bottom of the page.
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| How much energy can you save with a new bulb?
Complete the activities on screen. Before you click the check mark, answer the questions below.
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| Look at the 15-Year Energy Cost. Which bulb is cheapest? Why do you think each bulb's cost is so different?
The LED is cheapest. It wastes very little of its energy making heat -- almost all of the energy makes light. |
| Use subtraction to see how much money you can save. What is the difference between the 1-year cost of an LED and the 1-year cost of an incandescent?
(Answers will vary. 1-year energy costs for LEDs are 15% of an equivalent incandescent.) |
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| How much money can you save as the seasons change?
Complete the activities on screen. Before you click the check mark, answer the questions below.
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| Why should you keep your house cooler when it is cold outside? Why should you keep your house warmer when it is hot outside?
The greater the difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures, the more energy you will use to maintain that different temperature. |
| Look at the graph. This graph is calculated based on your choices. What is a trend you see? Explain why you think that trend might be true.
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| Trend:
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| Explanation:
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| How much energy can you save by upgrading your appliances?
Complete the activities on screen. Before you click the check mark, answer the questions below.
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| Which fridge did you choose? Why did you choose that over the other?
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| A fridge uses 150 W each hour. How much energy does it use in 10 hours?
1500 W |
| A fridge uses 3600 W in 24 hours, but energy is usually measured in kW. If a kW = 1000 W, how many kW did you use?
3.6 kW |
| Smart Scheduling Challenge: How much money can you save by scheduling automated tasks?
There are several ways to save money on electricity. One way we have already explored is to use less energy. Another is to change when we use energy.
When people are not home or are asleep, their home does not use much power. Power plants can easily keep up, so the price of power is low. When they get home, they turn on lights, TVs, and start dinner. This means power plants have to work really hard to keep up, so power is more expensive. Power companies usually charge an average price, for example if power costs 10c at night and 12c in the evening, they charge 11c all day long. The smart meter makes it possible for customers to choose hour-by-hour pricing instead. They can pay a lower price by saving tasks like charging their electric vehicle until the middle of the night or early in the morning.
Complete the activities on screen. Before you click the check mark, answer the questions below.
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| What is the lowest price you could reach while keeping energy use the same?
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| What do you do when you get home from school? How do those tasks use energy?
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| How did the graphs help you complete the activity?
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| How does business use of energy compare to that at your home?
Complete the activities on screen. Complete the activities on screen. Before you click the check mark, answer the questions below.
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| Look at the office building use in January. What time of day does the office use the least amount of power in January? What time of day does the office use the least amount of power in July? Think back to the HVAC challenge. How do you think heating and cooling affect energy use between seasons?
In January, the office uses the least energy at 4 PM. In July, the same building uses the least energy at 3:30 AM. This difference is a direct result of outdoor temperatures—it is warmest on winter afternoons and coolest in summer mornings. |
| In which month is the energy use greatest at each business? Why do you think the energy use is highest during those months?
Energy use is greatest during January at the office building and during July at both the grocery store and factory. The grocery store and factory use energy to cool [refrigerators and equipment] during all seasons, but they have to use much more energy to cool during the summer. |
| Look at the bar graph. What business uses the most power? What business uses the least? Why do you think they are different?
Factories use the most power -- they are typically running large equipment nearly every hour of the day. The grocery store uses the least overall, but the grocery store likely uses more energy per square foot than the office. |
| Go to the Experiments page.
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| What can your home do to automatically save energy?
Complete the activities on screen. Before you click the check mark, answer the questions below.
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| What was the plan you developed for your car's arrival?
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| Why was this a good plan?
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| Where do solar cells receive the most light energy?
Complete the activities on screen. Before marking the challenge complete, answer the questions below.
This sensor is sometimes slow. You may need to press 'Capture' a few times to see the best results.
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| What is lightest area? What is darkest? What evidence have you collected to support that?
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| Is there something in your home you would like to happen if the room were too dark? How could you use a light sensor to make that happen?
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| You explored different parts of a smart home. How can a smart home help you use less energy?
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| Shutting the System Down
Please do not unplug the home without turning it off first. This could damage the computer inside the home. You can turn the home off from the tablet's Admin menu (). Please power the tablet off also: press and hold the power button on the side, then press Shut Down on screen. Please leave the tablet plugged in to charge.
Repacking the Home
Return each of the devices to their places in the home's garage box. Please ensure that all components fit snugly in the box and that they will not be jostled when the home is shipped to the next school.
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Problem-Solving
If you have problems with home devices, check that each device matches your home. Each device has a label which should match the house number.)
Next, restart by going to the Admin menu () and clicking Refresh System. You might also shut the system down, unplug it, and plug it back in.
If you are having more major problems, please contact CeMaST. The homes do not connect to your school's wireless network, so your school's technology specialist may not be able to help.
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