Ben:
How hard would it be to design a uP that when activated, would take over thermostat duties (sits in between tstat and HVAC) for my cabin when I shut it down for the winter? I normally keep the temperature down to 40 so the toilets don't freeze, but sometimes during the winter we'll get a warm spell of say, 60 degrees outside. It would be nice to have a system that would open a damper and take advantage of the warm outside air by opening a damper connected to the main fan and pulling the outside air in, thus warming the house up and reducing the need for the heat to come on when it gets down to 30 that night.
I could also see this unit acting as a more intelligent system during the active cycle too. Lets say its summertime and the thermostat calls for the outside unit (compressor) to kick on and the fan to circulate. The smart system that sits in between can recognize however when its 60 degrees during the morning that it disconnects the call for compressor and just runs outside air. Of course, outside humidity would need to be taken into account as well.
I know the basics of this would not be difficult, and would probably not make for an interesting show. Maybe if you run out of cool stuff to do, LOL.
Thanks, love the show.
Jeff
