{"id":133,"date":"2022-05-18T10:31:24","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T09:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/phshighercomputingscience\/?page_id=133"},"modified":"2022-05-18T10:35:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T09:35:11","slug":"enviroment","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/phshighercomputingscience\/enviroment\/","title":{"rendered":"Enviroment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Global warming is a fact of life and the amount of energy we consume can only make this worse.\u00a0 Therefore, anything that can be done to reduce our energy consumption will reduce the impact on the environment.\u00a0 Intelligent systems have been designed to reduce this impact.\u00a0 We are going to look at three ways:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Heating systems<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Traffic Control<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Car management systems<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Heating Systems<\/h2>\n

    Over the past couple of years, heating systems have become more intelligent to try to save energy and save the customer money.\u00a0 Some of the ways this is being done are:<\/span><\/p>\n

    Knowing when the house is empty<\/span><\/b>
    \nSome intelligent systems track the occupancy of the house by the location of the occupier\u2019s smartphones.\u00a0 If all the smartphones are \u2018out of the house\u2019 then it can lower the temperature of the house.\u00a0 If any of the smartphones start moving toward the house (using the phones GPS) then the heating can be increased; the closer the smartphone gets to the house the nearer it will be to the desired temperature.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Smart climate assistant<\/span><\/b>
    \nSome intelligent heating systems can be linked via the Internet to the weather forecast.\u00a0 If a very cold spell of weather is forecast then the heating can automatically be increased (or the time it is on extended).\u00a0 Similarly if a very warm spell is forecast then the temperature can be lowered or the system switched off all together.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Remote control of the heating system<\/span><\/b>
    \nMany intelligent heating systems now allow you to control your heating via your smartphone.\u00a0 For example, if you are going to be delayed at the office, what is the point of heating an empty house?\u00a0 By using your smartphone you can override the controls and tell it to switch on the heating later.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Zoning areas of the house<\/span><\/b>
    \nDifferent areas of the house are used more or less frequently, so what is the point of having them all at the same temperature?\u00a0 For example a spare bedroom may only be used once a month so could be set to a lower temperature.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    All of the above should reduce the amount of \u2018wasted\u2019 energy our heating sy<\/span><\/span>stems use therefore reducing the impact our heating systems are having on the environment.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Traffic Control<\/h2>\n

    Some of the ways intelligent systems are trying to reduce the environmental impact of this are<\/span>:<\/span><\/p>\n

    Adaptive Traffic Signals<\/span><\/b>
    \nAdaptive traffic signals adjust the timing of their green light cycles to match current traffic conditions on the ground. They are constantly collecting data about approaching vehicles and creating new timing sequences to match them.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Adaptive Traffic Signals utilise video cameras and sensors to collect information about the vehicles approaching an intersection.\u00a0 Software analyses this information and creates a customized timing sequence in real time. The software communicates this sequence to coordinated signals up and down the corridor, so that they all function in sync with each other.\u00a0 This means that the traffic flows better and hence there is less pollutants given out so lessening the environmental impact.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Intelligent Routing Systems<\/span><\/b>
    \nGoogle reportedly paid $1billion for an app called Waze.\u00a0 Waze generates many of its maps by using GPS to track the movements of its nearly 50 million users.\u00a0 Users of Waze share “information about slowdowns, speed traps and road closures, allowing Waze to update suggested routes in real time.\u00a0 This should allow for less hold-ups due to accidents, traffic jams, roadworks etc and hence reduce wasted energy and pollutants.<\/span><\/p>\n

    There is some talk of Waze being integrated into Google\u2019s driverless cars therefore allowing the cars to take the most economic route.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Driverless Cars<\/span><\/b>
    \nCars consume much more fuel and hence give out more pollutants when they are driven erratically.\u00a0 Using high acceleration and severe braking at the last minute, uses a lot more energy than a gradual acceleration and deceleration. Unfortunately, at the moment this is controlled by the driver.\u00a0 However, driverless cars are set to become available in the near future.\u00a0 These cars will have an intelligent system that will ensure that they gradually accelerate and decelerate (except in an emergency) which should reduce the energy consumed and hence reduce the impact on the environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Car Management Systems<\/h2>\n

    A number of manufacturers are using car management systems to try and reduce the impact of the car on the environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Some of the ways intelligent systems are trying to reduce the environmental impact of this are:<\/span><\/p>\n

    Intelligent Start Stop Systems<\/span><\/b>
    \nWhen a car sits at traffic lights with the engine idling, it is using fossil fuels and emitting polluting fumes.\u00a0 Car manufacturers have created a system called the \u2018Intelligent Start\/Stop System\u2019 whereby when the car is in neutral and the clutch engaged the engine will automatically be switched off.\u00a0 When the clutch is disengaged then the engine automatically starts again.\u00a0 This system is estimated to be reducing fuel consumption by between 3% – 10%.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Engine Control Units<\/span><\/b>
    \nEngine control units are becoming more common in cars as manufacturers try to reduce emissions from their cars and improve energy efficiency.\u00a0\u00a0 A variety of sensors including temperature and manifold air pressure sensors ensure an optimized air-fuel mixture for more efficient combustion.\u00a0 A more efficient combustion means less fuel used and less pollutants.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Global warming is a fact of life and the amount of energy we consume can only make this worse.\u00a0 Therefore, anything that can be done to reduce our energy consumption will reduce the impact on the environment.\u00a0 Intelligent systems have been designed to reduce this impact.\u00a0 We are going to look at three ways: Heating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79984,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-133","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/phshighercomputingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/phshighercomputingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/phshighercomputingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/phshighercomputingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79984"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/phshighercomputingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/phshighercomputingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/phshighercomputingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/133\/revisions\/143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/phshighercomputingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}