THE LOG

Week 1

First meeting after the Part A exam and we have formed our team.

We have not yet agree on the group title but we have two ideas.

1.) Energy and E-Commerce.
2.) Integration of renewable systems into buildings.

After a meeting with Professor Clarke attention was given on Energy and E-Commerce.

Finally it is confirmed that "Energy and E-Commerce" is our project.

Critical review has started.

Jobs assigned as follows:

Aggelos: Researching through the Internet, library and other universities

Wing To: Researching through the Internet

Antonis: Researching through the Internet, library and other universities

Aidar: Researching through the Internet and library

Week 2

Group meeting at the beginning of the week. Information was exchanged and a few ideas for the project also generated.

1.) Concentrate on Business to Business (B to B).
2.) Or concentrate on Business to Consumer (B to C)
3.) Web-based program to improve efficiency of websites
4.) Online billing, real time pricing, real time demand exchange.
5.) Online information library and advice on energy products.

Meeting with Prof. Clarke and Dr. Strachan. After discussion on the progress of the project, they suggested that we shouldn't go too fast at this stage. So we decided to restructure our critical review.

Wing To and Aggelos will concentrate on E-commerce.

Antonis and Aidar will concentrate on Energy.

Information was gathered and ideas, on how to connect Energy and E-commerce, were generated.

Attend Team A & B's presentations.

Design our own presentation for next week.

Week 3

Start preparing the presentation.

Meeting with Prof. Clarke. He thinks we need to have some examples and facts to support our presentation.

Started searching for online success and fail stories of e-commerce applications.

15/02/01: Site visit - Hunterston Nuclear Power Station

Continue working on the presentation

1st Crit.

We decided to go for the control. (i.e. Using internet to control devices)

Week 4

Searching information that related to controlling and monitoring devices using the net.

Meeting with Prof. Clarke.

And we have decided what to do for the next crit.

1.) Identify what to control (e.g. heating)
2.) How to measure and sending the signal
3.) How to connect devices together (e.g. wireless or wire)
4.) What software is need
5.) Appliances that can be controlled:
Heating system
Lighting
Air Conditioning
Electric appliances

21/02/01: Site visit - Lighthouse

Generated ideas for the project:

1.) Health and comfort
2.) Air quality
3.) Demand exchange
4.) Monitoring outside environmental condition

Searching information for 2nd crit.

Week 5

Planning of presentation layout for 2nd crit.

Attended the HTML course.

2nd crit presented and there is a problem with the aim of the project. We are unable to ask people why we want to use the Internet very well.

Week 6

Discussing the layout for the web and what to do for the project ahead.

Investigate the problem of "Leaking of electricity" from TV, HIFI and VCR.

Early idea of the project confirmed within the group. It involves creating a smart device (e.g. smart plug) so that we can manage the energy demand by controlling certain home appliances by switching them off.

Looking into more detail about the "Leaking electricity" (also known as standby power consumption). And investigate a way to implement it into our project.

We have decided the basic layout for the next coming crit.

Site visit - coal power station

Preparing the presentation for the next coming crit.

Week 7

Information on power consumption of most common used home appliances has been found.

We are also working on the logic diagram for the smart plug through out the week and calculate the standby power consumption and saving for each appliance.

3rd crit presented

Week 8

Improving the logic diagram for the smart plug.

New assumption also used for the calculation of standby power and saving. An excel file has been created.

Meeting with PhD student, Steven Conner. Who helped us to create the smart plug model using Lab View.

Preparing the presentation for the 4th crit.

Week 9

Calculating the results for the standby power consumption and saving using new assumptions.

Meeting with Steven for information on the progress of the Lab View model.

Finalising the logic diagram of the smart plug for standby power strategy.

4th Crit presented. No serious problem! The final crit will be based on this one.

Week 10

Prepare a short presentation for Prof. Clarke that is about our final structure for the final crit.

Start working on the web. Creation of the web layout and start preparing all the documents for the web.

Week 11

Continue with the construction of the website and the documents.

And also prepare the presentation for the last final practice crit on next week.

Week 12