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DeepMind in “very early stage” talks with National Grid to reduce UK energy use

arstechnica.co.uk

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Re: DeepMind in “very early stage” talks with National Grid to reduce UK energy use

#21

Post by poooogles »

javiermaestro wrote: post #13

Heh. If only they mandate to replace a majority of the crappy wooden + single-pane windows they have in most houses, that let all of the heat out and wind and noise in, with normal, double-glaze windows with good insulation, they would cut the energy footprint in HALF, I'm sure...

>crappy wooden

I'm not sure where you got the gripe against wood from. It lasts longer than uPVC given maintenance every 5 years, looks better, is more environmentally friendly and has similar thermal properties. Oh and it doesn't go yellow.

Re: DeepMind in “very early stage” talks with National Grid to reduce UK energy use

#22

Post by wheelerwj »

stult wrote: post #16
wheelerwj wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to say, I feel like this could be done with excel and some historical data combined with weather forecasting. that being said, even if ML gets you a 0.5% advantage over spreadsheet math, that is a non-trivial amount of savings on a national scale.

But is it non-trivial net of the expense of gaining it?

That is a much easier decision to make, but i have no idea what the costs and savings involved are so I do not know.

Re: DeepMind in “very early stage” talks with National Grid to reduce UK energy use

#23

Post by RBerenguel »

javiermaestro wrote: post #13

Heh. If only they mandate to replace a majority of the crappy wooden + single-pane windows they have in most houses, that let all of the heat out and wind and noise in, with normal, double-glaze windows with good insulation, they would cut the energy footprint in HALF, I'm sure...

That's what I think any time I'm in the UK. But most buildings are either protected (happened in our office, windows could not be double glassed due to protection and they added a new, secondary window for insulation "behind"), or nobody wants to spend that amount of money

Re: DeepMind in “very early stage” talks with National Grid to reduce UK energy use

#25

Post by fao_ »

wheelerwj wrote: post #9
sweezyjeezy wrote: post #5

The DeepMind datacenter project was very interesting, but a lot of the ML people I spoke to were quite dubious about how much of it was genuinely down to new AI/neural networks, and how much of it was Google PR to justify how much they spent on DeepMind. > DeepMind trained a neural network to more accurately predict future cooling requirements, in turn reducing the power usage of the cooling system by 40 percent. But…

I was going to say, I feel like this could be done with excel and some historical data combined with weather forecasting. that being said, even if ML gets you a 0.5% advantage over spreadsheet math, that is a non-trivial amount of savings on a national scale.

On the other hand, if ML gives you a 0.5% disadvantage, that too is a non-trival amount of losses on a national scale. Because they compared against baseline rather than against another data science team (or both), it's difficult to know if ML actually brings an advantage here.

Re: DeepMind in “very early stage” talks with National Grid to reduce UK energy use

#27

Post by fao_ »

javiermaestro wrote: post #18
cjrp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They kind of did that with the Green Deal (helping people finance home improvements which boosted their energy efficiency) - https://www.gov.uk/green-deal-energy-saving-measures/overvie...

I'd love to see the results... I've never been so baffled in my life, looking for a "normal" flat in London and looking at horrible prospects that cost a fortune with windows from a century ago. And when I asked about that, they were all saying "oh, but the house is listed! Can't change the windows unless X, Y, Z". Whatever. We can put people in a rocket and take them to the moon but we can't replace windows and make…

There's a history of people hiring the wrong builders and buildings being destroyed, I should imagine it's partially to hedge against that.

Re: DeepMind in “very early stage” talks with National Grid to reduce UK energy use

#28

Post by cjrp »

javiermaestro wrote: post #18
cjrp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They kind of did that with the Green Deal (helping people finance home improvements which boosted their energy efficiency) - https://www.gov.uk/green-deal-energy-saving-measures/overvie...

I'd love to see the results... I've never been so baffled in my life, looking for a "normal" flat in London and looking at horrible prospects that cost a fortune with windows from a century ago. And when I asked about that, they were all saying "oh, but the house is listed! Can't change the windows unless X, Y, Z". Whatever. We can put people in a rocket and take them to the moon but we can't replace windows and make…

I'd be surprised if it was genuinely because the building's listed, it's usually just that the landlord doesn't want to make the investment (and the market doesn't demand it). Sadly, until the law requires rentals attain a certain level of efficiency, the same way you need something like a gas safety certificate, I can't see it changing.

And apparently the Green Deal was a failure - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/14/green-de....

Re: DeepMind in “very early stage” talks with National Grid to reduce UK energy use

#29

Post by moonbug »

javiermaestro wrote: post #18
cjrp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They kind of did that with the Green Deal (helping people finance home improvements which boosted their energy efficiency) - https://www.gov.uk/green-deal-energy-saving-measures/overvie...

I'd love to see the results... I've never been so baffled in my life, looking for a "normal" flat in London and looking at horrible prospects that cost a fortune with windows from a century ago. And when I asked about that, they were all saying "oh, but the house is listed! Can't change the windows unless X, Y, Z". Whatever. We can put people in a rocket and take them to the moon but we can't replace windows and make…

Someone's taking the piss. There's almost no chance a "normal" flat in London is listed. Conservation area, maybe, but that's a different kettle of fish. Most likely your prospective landlord's a cheapskate.

Re: DeepMind in “very early stage” talks with National Grid to reduce UK energy use

#30

Post by theoh »

fao_ wrote: post #27
javiermaestro wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to see the results... I've never been so baffled in my life, looking for a "normal" flat in London and looking at horrible prospects that cost a fortune with windows from a century ago. And when I asked about that, they were all saying "oh, but the house is listed! Can't change the windows unless X, Y, Z". Whatever. We can put people in a rocket and take them to the moon but we can't replace windows and make…

There's a history of people hiring the wrong builders and buildings being destroyed, I should imagine it's partially to hedge against that.

If you take the example of something like a Crittall steel-framed single-glazed window, a classic of the 1930s, there's just no way to fit double-glazing into the frames without destroying the appearance. The problem of thermal bridging (the metal conducts heat straight through) is also difficult to solve without thickening the frames. Maybe future technology will solve these problems. It seems more likely that the appearance of those buildings will take a hit due to the urgency of saving energy.
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