Modern Austin Homes at InspiredAustin.com » Technology

1011 Canyon Edge – Sketchup Flyby

Ryan Brown — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:34:27 +0000

One of the great things about specializing in modern architecture is that I often have access to architectural drawings & models of a home (in addition to beautiful photos). In the case of 1011 Canyon Edge I have some of the original architectural drawings, but also a Sketchup model:

Since Google enabled the integration of Sketchup models into Google Earth, I thought it would be cool to record a flyby through the canyon. Let me know what you think in the comments below, and don’t forget to come by the open house on Sunday!

Required Disclaimer: The Sketchup model and/or google earth data may not be to scale or 100% accurate.

How to Determine if your Builder is Overpaid

Ryan Brown — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:17:05 +0000

If my builder pulled up in a ‘Site Commander’, or rode around the jobsite on a heavy-duty Segway, I might have some questions about his fee. Watch the video for all of the features of this builder concept vehicle:

Full details are here: thesitecommander.com (the video text is wrong)

The main features are must-haves for most builders today – internet access and a generator. My builder could have used that coffee maker too. I think a detachable moped may be more useful than a Segway – for those daily runs to the hardware store for odds and ends.

I’m interested to hear from a few builders – What’s do you think is the best/worst feature on the ‘Site Commander’? Or what is missing that would be on your dream truck?

Baking with The Energy Detective

Ryan Brown — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 23:22:27 +0000

I’ve discussed Energy Monitoring in previous posts:

I have now purchased and installed my own TED Model 1001 energy monitor so I thought I’d share my thoughts.

Energy Detective Details

The Energy Detective (TED) is a fairly simple device – a measurement unit installed in my electrical panel transmits real-time power consumption data to a LCD display. The display unit tracks peak levels and can display power in kilowatts (kW) or dollars as well as the line voltage. Here’s what came in the box:

You’ll notice the USB port on the LCD unit – I paid an extra $40 for the TED Footprints software so I can log and view data on my PC. More on this in a moment.

Installation was fairly straightforward, as long as you don’t mind mucking around in your electrical panel. I won’t go into detail – you can read the instructions and muck around at your own risk . If you’d rather avoid the hassle an electrician could easily install this in less than an hour.

Next there are a few setup steps on the Display Unit – you can enter electrical rate details which allows TED to display in dollars (and $/hr). It works well with the Austin Energy 2 tiered rate model and seasonal rate change.

Living with The Energy Detective – My Review

I’m not going to say that TED changed my life, but I certainly enjoy having it. I’m kind of a data addict and TED allows me to measure and track my power consumption. The first hour or so after I installed it were spent turning on all of our lights and appliances and monitoring the change in kWh. Kind of nerdy, but an enlightening experience.

For anyone considering the TED, I would highly recommend the Footprints software. It allows me to connect the TED display to my PC and log the data. This has been very useful for tracking the performance of our HVAC system as well as monitoring our use-patterns.

All of the above information has helped me to live more efficiently and consider the costs of leaving a light on, or even baking brownies…

Baking with TED

Last weekend I baked a small pan of brownies in our electric oven. Brownie ingredients are pretty cheap (chocolate, eggs, butter, etc.), but I was curious as to the cost of the ‘embodied energy’ (at least my oven’s contribution). So I pulled up the TED data for the afternoon, here is a snapshot:

Here is a PDF of the full-size chart: TED-Baking.pdf

This graph shows a lot of good data. The TED takes a measurement every second, so the x-axis shows the time I spent baking. The blue plot is the power consumption (in kW) – this is what we’re after. The red plot is the voltage (RMS) of the power lines – interesting mainly to see the power quality from Austin Energy and to see it drop as I draw more current.

First – Wow! My oven takes some power! The plot jumps up about 5 kW when the oven started pre-heating. I checked my owner’s manual and it turns out I have a 5 kW heating element – this supports the measurement data. It’s also interesting to see how the heating element turns on and off to maintain the 350 degree temperature. This is basically the same control algorithm used by your average thermostat – simple but effective.

Also notice the two ~ 2 kW spikes around 2:40 pm – this was when I used the microwave to melt the butter/chocolate mix. Here’s a closer look at this section of the plot (oven pre-heat and microwave):

With the TED power measurement for each second, I can calculate the total power consumption for baking the brownies. This is the area under the blue plot in kilowatt-hours. To be fair I’ll remove the ~0.6 kW base level as this is due to the lights, computer, fridge, etc. in the house.

So there you have it – Thanks to TED I know that baking brownies required 1.67 kWh of power, which cost me about 12 cents.

Conclusion

You get the idea – The Energy Detective is a neat way to learn more about how you consume electricity, which should help you to be more efficient in your consumption. I think installing TED is a great idea for builders – costing less than $200 it’s very affordable feature and it can immediately measure/demonstrate the effectiveness of the home and its systems. Of course TED can eventually pay for itself by helping to reduce wasted energy.

What do you think? Is the TED providing worthwhile data or is this too much information? Share your questions or comments below.

Solar Power Generation Calculator

Ryan Brown — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:11:04 +0000

Solar panels are growing in popularity in Austin as we have many sunny days as well as significant rebates from Austin Energy.

This question often comes up when I visit homes with buyers. “Does this home have good potential for solar power generation?” Obviously there are several factors:

Roof size, angle, and orientation
Roof shading from nearby trees and structures
Deed restrictions
Available rebates

Items 2 – 4 can be quickly determined. However, calculating the solar power generation potential is a bit more complicated as it depends on the area, angle, and orientation of the roof (Item #1 above). Of course the path of the sun changes through the year, which should also be taken into account for proper estimation.

Sounds like a fun exercise right? Well, if you’d rather avoid the calculation there is a handy website that will take care of it for you. Check it out: www.roofray.com

With this website all you have to do is find the home on Google Maps and draw the area where the solar panel array would be installed. You then set the orientation and angle and Roofray does the rest. Here is an example:

With this information the website can calculate your monthly power generation:

As well as generate a cost-benefit analysis based on your average utility bill and the utility rates for your area. Here is the break even calculation from my sample report (unfortunately they don’t include our rebate program):

If you’re considering solar, check it out!

Design Your Dwelling Competition

Ryan Brown — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:57:37 +0000

Attention Austin artists, architects, designers, creative’s, and Sketchup jockeys – Dwell and Sketchup are holding a little competition:

Design Your Dwelling Competition

Here is their description:

What does it mean to feel at home in the modern world? Dwell & Google SketchUp challenge you to explore what this means to you in the "Design Your Dwelling" design competition featuring Google SketchUp software.

Most people define their home as a place where they feel comfortable and secure. But what does that actually look like? What would make it personal to you? Is it scale, materials, sustainability, environment? Only you know for sure. Entry period is July 3-August 31, 2008.

Check out this website for competition details: Design Your Dwelling

Grand Prize Details

Besides the pride and prestige of winning, the grand prize sounds like a lot of fun:

On September 12th the competition winner will be flown to San Francisco, California to join Dwell editors for lunch at the Dwell offices in San Francisco, tour the "site" of their Dwell home, and take the Dwell/AIA architecture home tours in San Francisco. In addition, a physical 3D model of their winning home will be created and displayed in the Dwell headquarters and then gifted to the winner. Airfare will be provided by Google SketchUp and two nights accommodation in San Francisco will be provided by Dwell.

Sketchup Resources

There are several powerful 3d design tools in the marketplace. Sketchup stands out because it is not only capable of rendering complex and detailed spaces, but it is also very easy to learn. There are many online resources to help you get started. Here are a couple:

Feel free to add others in the comments. Let me know if you enter the contest and I’ll post your work here. Good luck!

Designing our Central Austin Remodel

Ryan Brown — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:46:18 +0000

This is the third post about my modern remodel in Austin, Texas. Click here for all ‘My Remodel’ posts.

As I covered in the Home Search post, we considered our remodeling options when we purchased our home. We found a small home on a big-enough lot and began to plan our project.

Starting Point

The original home sits towards the front of a long, narrow city-size lot with homes on either side. There are several medium sized trees on the property and one large Elm on the North property line, all of which shade the rear of the house (West) from the afternoon sun. Here’s a top view of my rough model (North is up):

While the existing garage was moments away from collapse, the house was structurally sound. We wanted to re-use as much of it as possible. Here is the floorplan:

You can see that the home was originally a 3 bedroom 1 bath with a small living room and kitchen. We think the rear addition was a closed-in back-porch that was completed in the 1970’s or 1980’s. It wasn’t well built, and had several structural issues.

Here are some photos of the original house:

Design Goals – Fashion and Function

With a long and narrow lot, an existing house, and several good sized trees, we knew our remodel/addition design would be challenging. We did our best to keep our program simple and to stay open to our architect’s ideas. Here is a list of our ‘functional’ criteria:

Open and connected common areas (living, dining, kitchen …)
Strong connection to the outdoors (lots of glass, outdoor living)
Energy efficient design (minimize solar heat gain, maximize breeze …)
Main floor master and guest bedrooms
Secluded office (I like quiet, my wife likes to hide my mess, win-win)
Option for separate studio and workshop

As for fashion, our tastes lean towards Modern and MCM architecture/design, however we also wanted our home to relate to the design elements of our neighborhood (mostly Craftsman and some Victorian). An interesting challenge, so we left this up to our architect . Lets see how we did before this post gets any longer.

Design Details

Below is the layout of our remodel/addition. You can see we re-oriented the spaces in the original home, while adding a kitchen, sitting room, and master suite.

The key challenge in our design turned out to be the large tree just behind the old addition. Fortunately we were able to use this to our advantage and design a courtyard around it. This is one of our favorite elements of the new design.

The kitchen opens to this courtyard, and is connected to the living/dining area in the old house. We also added a clerestory to bring light into the Living/Dining room and allow for ventilation.

Not shown above – there is a room above the master suite, which is my (secluded) office. Finally, our architect designed an optional secondary workshop/studio structure at the back of the lot. Here are a few images of the mostly-accurate 3d model:

With that our architect addressed all of our needs while keeping the design within our budget. At each step he provided suggestions that were usually right on target and often saved us money. Needless to say, we are happy clients!

Great! So who is your architect?

In Austin we are fortunate to have many amazing architects. Guiding my wife and I through the design process was my good friend from college, Robert Shelton. Robert works here in Austin and has designed several residential and municipal projects. He designed one of my more popular listings, a ‘Hill-Country Modern’ home with a view, which I will be re-posting soon.

Robert’s website is under construction, so if you’d like to contact him about your project in the near term go ahead and send me an email – Ryan at InspiredAustin dot com. I will update this post with his website as soon as it is ready.

Stay tuned for my next post – Finding a Builder.

Sunday Speedlinks 12-2-07

Ryan Brown — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 19:27:07 +0000

A wide variety of links this week – something for everyone:

Austin (Good) News

Austin gets high marks in yet another nationwide ranking- Austin Business Journal: Survey: Austin high on most-desirable list. Perhaps this survey states the obvious (of course people want to move here!), but its nice to get the national recognition.
Today Show Real Estate Expert (and successful investor) Barbara Corcoran calls out South Austin as one of four “up and coming” neighborhoods in the country. See the video – MSNBC – Barbara Corcoran on up and coming neighborhoods.

Green Building & Architecture

I’ve seen a lot of architects make customer furniture, however there are several other venues for their design skills. Archinect points out some notable examples – Archinect: Architects’ Designs on Fashion and Boating
Great news for green entrepreneurs – Techcrunch: Google Takes on Global Warming. See the full Google press release here.
Even the famous Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center has gone ‘green’ with solar panels and LED lights – Apartment Therapy: Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Goes Green.
For those considering a remodel or addition in the near future (myself), here is some good news – The Real Estate Bloggers: Time To Rebuild The Deck, Or Lumber Prices Decline On Low Demand.

Real Estate

Check out this listing: Lautner Designed Lucien Hubbard’s Desert Hot Springs Motel For Sale for only $495,000! Seems like a deal to me! I think a certain local modern blogger (and Lautner fan) may need to move to Desert Hot Springs, CA. For more cool listings with great photos checkout ArchitectureForSale.com.
Another unique home in the desert (although not for sale), the USA Today tours magician Teller’s home – USA Today: Teller’s magical Vegas retreat speaks volumes.
If you have $40 Million to spend here’s a great Richard Meier designed condo for you Curbed: On the Market: What $40 Million at Meier Gets You.
Finally, read this post for a tough lesson on Adverse Possession – BoingBoing: Land grab case in Boulder incites anger and protests

Misc

Google Maps adds terrain data Google LatLong: Explore new terrain.
Perhaps some holiday gift ideas for your favorite bookworm NY Times: 10 Best Books of 2007.

Have a great weekend. Enjoy the beautiful fall weather while it lasts!

Homes of the Future – Solar Decathlon 2007

Ryan Brown — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:00:41 +0000

Public competition is often used as a tool to spur innovation. Recent high-profile examples include the widely publicized Ansari X-Prize and the DARPA Grand Challenge. The technologies developed by each of the teams in these competitions serve to advance the state of the art in the field.

To bring this competition and innovation to the field of high-performance (green), solar-powered homes, the US Department of Energy created the Solar Decathlon. Here’s a description from their website:

The Solar Decathlon joins 20 college and university teams in a competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house.

The competition is composed of 10 contests, each grading a different aspect of the designs. The 10 contests are: Architecture, Engineering, Market Viability, Communications, Comfort Zone, Appliances, Hot Water, Lighting, Energy Balance, Getting Around. This variety forces the students to make difficult trade-offs when optimizing their designs, and of course to innovate.

For those in the DC area, the Solar Decathlon takes place on the National Mall this week, and the homes are open to the public every day except Wednesday, 10/17. The winner is announced on Friday. Here are a few of the competing designs for 2007:

The University of Colorado has won both of the past two competitions (2002 and 2005). Here is a rendering of their 2007 design:

University of Colorado Solar Decathlon Design 2007

As we’re in Austin, here is the UT design:

University of Texas Solar Decathlon Design 2007

Finally, I’m an Aggie, so here is the Texas A&M Design:

Texas A&M University Solar Decathlon Design 2007

For more details check out the main Solar Decathlon Website and the Inhabitat Coverage. Also, here’s a recent Statesman article about the UT design – UT team ready as solar decathlon opens. Send me an email if you plan to check it out in person.

Here’s hoping for a Texas team to end the Colorado Dynasty.

Sunday Speedlinks 10-14-07

Ryan Brown — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 17:55:21 +0000

A long list, but a lot of variety….

Austin Real Estate News

Our local modern bloggers, remodellers, and Door Business Owners were written up in the Statesman this week. Congratulations Erwins! Statesman: Remodeling opens doors for family in Crestview
Have you ever wondered if those UT apartments near the Tom Miller Dam (on Lake Austin Blvd) will ever be redeveloped? Here’s a hint at the answer: Austinist: UT Releases Recommendations for Brackenridge Tract
In other waterfront property news - Statesman: Windy Point on the market for $15 million
And some national press coverage of Austin real estate affordability – BusinessWeek: South stands out for home value
Real Estate Investment Blogger Jeff “Bawldguy” Brown was here last week, and I think he liked what he saw – BawldGuy Talking: Real Estate Investors — Austin Deserves Serious Attention — BawldGuy Wish List

Some good Dwell blog links

Dwell: Modernism at McDonalds… I know, but check out the photos.
And a Dwell link with photos from a recent San Francisco homes tour – Dwell: San Francisco Living Home Tours

Google Mapping Updates

YouTube videos in Google Earth? Think of the possibilities… Google Earth Blog: New YouTube Layer in Google Earth
And new satellite imagery to go with your videos – Google Earth Blog: Google Earth Imagery Update
What about Google Maps? Now it includes Streetview images for 6 new cities: Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland and Tucson – Google LatLong: More Street View cities to explore

Good night, and good luck.

Sunday Speedlinks 9-23-07

Ryan Brown — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 22:07:26 +0000

A few links for the weekend:

In Wind Energy news, from the Austin Business Journal: Austin Energy boosting wind generated power
The Dwell Blog has a cool video of architects building a massive Lego cityVideo: Lego Mania
Check out My Money Blog for A Comparison Of Home Flipping Shows: Flip This House, Flip That House, and The Property Ladder. I personally prefer the shows that follow up with the flippers to convey the true outcome, instead of bragging up the ‘projected profit’.
Slashdot covers a Method for $1/Watt Solar Panels Will Soon See Commercial Use.
Lifehacker points out a map based local music search: Find Local Music with Gruvr Maps. It’s a neat app, we’ll see if it can handle the # of shows in Austin.
Rolling Stone lists the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

Enjoy.