We don't have any cable TV service on the mountain so we have to look at alternatives.  Two of our primary candidates are Over The Air (OTA) and streaming services such as KODI.

In this post I'll discuss OTA which can deliver the major broadcast networks and some PBS stations.

To find out what Over The Air (OTA) stations might be within range I used the transmitter locator tool on antennapoint.com (click on the image to go to their site).

They identified 15 transmitters within a 60 mile radius. Most of the stations are directly south in the Atlanta metro area and should be within range with a suitable antenna.

Three stations (Chatsworth, Athens and Toccoa) are far off axis.

Note that each transmitter broadcasts multiple stations so we should be able to get quite a few channels OTA.

For the first experiment we tried the Mohu Leaf 50 amplified indoor antenna.

I selected this antenna based on small size, good reviews and the fact that the amplifier is separate so I could try it with and without the amplifier.

The antenna itself is about the size of a sheet of paper and only 1/4" thick.  This allows us to hang it on the wall with a couple of tacks and try different locations.

Most of the major stations are in Atlanta which is almost directly south. For the initial experiments I just tacked the antenna to a south facing wall near the TV.

Results

The results are both better and worse than I expected.

On the positive side, the indoor Leaf 50 picked up 19 transmitters with a total of 68 channels. This is 5 more transmitters than predicted by the locator tool.  As expected, we are not able to pick up 8 (Athens) which is off-axis and very low power. I'm surprised that we are able to pick up 18 (Chatsworth) and 32 (Toccoa).

In addition, we are picking  up 5 transmitters that were not identified by the tool. These include 4 (very poor signal), 26, 45, 47 and 50. None of these transmitters are significant for us.

• Virtual channel 26 is a low power station in Atlanta transmitting shopping, Spanish and French channels.
• Virtual channel 45 is W45DX-D which is a low power station in Atlanta licensed to Home Shopping Network.
  
• Virtual channel 47 is also a low power station in Atlanta. It is owned by Korean American TV Broadcasting.
  
• Virtual channel 50 is also a low power station located in Atlanta

On the negative side, reception is inconsistent. Sometimes we get 60 (or more) channels and at others we have almost no reception at all.  It does not seem weather related so I must consider the possibility that there's interference from our WiFi or other wireless devices in the house.

Intro
neoTerra employs a number of different techniques to conserve energy.   It is a passive solar design with high SHGC glazing to capture winter sun.  We utilized tight construction and  flash-batt insulation to reduce air infiltration and three hi-efficiency Daikin mini-split heat pumps for HVAC.

This is all good in theory, but any good science-fair project measures the actual results. As mentioned in previous posts, we installed an array of temperature sensors to obtain detailed measurements on how the passive solar design is functioning. This week, I installed an energy monitoring system so we can collect data on energy consumption.

TED (The Energy Detective
The product I selected is called TED, which is an acronym for The Energy Detective.

MTU
The basic unit is called an MTU and it measures the power for an entire breaker panel.

The MTU comes with two Current Transformers (or CTs) which are attached around the main feed lines and measure the current flowing through the lines.

The MTU is also attached to a circuit breaker which allows it to measure the house voltage.

By measuring the instantaneous voltage and current the MTU is able to calculate and report the instantaneous power for the panel each second.

Spyder
Measuring the power for the entire house is useful, but I wanted to be able to see how much power is being used by each of the three HVAC units.

TED offers an auxiliary device called the Spyder that can measure and report up to eight individual loads. It attaches to the MTU and comes with eight CTs.

I am using the Spyder to measure six loads:  3 HVAC units, the electric water heater, the well and the electric dryer.  This leaves me with two spare channels that will be used to measure power generated by a photo-voltaic system in the future.

Installation
NOTE: Installation requires opening up the breaker panel(s) and should only be done by a licensed electrician!

We have 400 Amp service consisting of two 200 Amp panels.  The main panel is on the left.  The auxiliary panel (on the right) contains a few critical circuits (like the well and refrigerator) and will be used for the future photo-voltaic system.

The MTU and Spyder are installed in bottom of the main panel.  There is a short conduit between the panels that allows sensor cables to be run to the Aux panel.

Here's a close-up of the final installation.  The MTU is on the right and the Spyder on the left. Both units should be secured to the cabinet with sheet metal screws and all the sensor cables neatly tied.

Results
Caution -- Geek Alert --

The energy monitoring system is Totally Cool!  I spent at least two hours tweaking the settings, turning stuff on and off (the toaster uses 500 watts) and playing with the graphs.  I am shocked to see that my computer uses more power than the refrigerator.

The weather here has been very moderate and the HVAC units have been turned off for the past two months. But the well, water heater and dryer make interesting graphs to illustrate how the system functions. 

The following graph shows the first 12 hours of operation.  The well is bright green, the water heater is yellow and the dryer is red.  I took a shower around 8:30 AM... you can see the well and water heater turn on.   The well ran at about 0.8 kW and the water heater at roughly 4.8 kW.  I'm surprised at how efficient the well is.

At 10:00 AM I decided to do a load of laundry (on cold) to see  what would happen.  Here you can see the well turn on and off as the washer goes through its cycles. The water heater does not turn on (as expected). Note that the well is consuming twice as much power to supply the washer as it did for the low-flow shower fixture.

The dryer (in red) consumes an impressive amount of power.  It looks like drying one load of laundry consumes more power than everything else in the house for an entire day.

Conclusions
I don't know if TED will save any energy but, combined with the temperature sensing system, it will allow us to develop a detailed understanding of how the various elements in the house interact and how well the passive solar design really works.