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

Post by javiermaestro » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 1:53 AM UTC

grey-area wrote: post #41

javiermaestro wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing against wood, really. But if you've been to the UK, you should agree that the unmaintained, not-properly-fitted, wooden frames that they use in most old windows are just crap. They let in huge amounts of wind, cold, etc, through the unsealed seams. Anything that improved that would be 10 times better, regardless of the yellowing, etc.

Most wooden sash (I assume you're talking about wooden sash) were properly fitted at the time, but are victorian or edwardian and therefore over 100 years old. They've done pretty well considering their heritage. New wooden sash with double glazing are better IMO than plastic windows - as the parent noted, plastic doesn't do well long term when exposed to light.

Post by javiermaestro » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 2:05 AM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #77

javiermaestro wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't understand your comment. You are agreeing with me that, in most other parts of the world, double-glazing (aka a glass that won't break if you elbow it by mistake!) is the norm. But in the UK, it's sadly the opposite. So we agree that they should replace their crappy windows with double-glazed, properly insulated, ones...

>> But in the UK, it's sadly the opposite. Any data to back this up? Personally I find it a pretty rare sight to see windows that aren't double glazed and if I came across a property without them it's absurd enough I wouldn't move into it.

Post by _800MHz_ » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 10:57 AM UTC

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #90

ucaetano wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the blog post, it seems that the 40% reduction is compared to the current utilization: "by applying DeepMind’s machine learning to our own Google data centres, we’ve managed to reduce the amount of energy we use for cooling by up to 40 percent. [...] Given how sophisticated Google’s data centres are already, it’s a phenomenal step forward."

That "up to" renders the rest of the phrase meaningless. Was it 40% less for one second/minute/hour/day? I assume, because they haven't actually given an impressive number without massive wiggle room, that it's because they are clever enough to know the real number is embarrassingly low, but would welcome corrections.

Post by javiermaestro » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 11:21 AM UTC

Neil44 wrote: post #68

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...

I think 'Most' is a huge overstatement, the last house I lived in without it was a student dive in 1996.

Post by _800MHz_ » Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 11:25 AM UTC

grandalf wrote: post #48

Predicting peaks in supply and demand for energy is essentially turning the utility into a hedge fund. I think it's worth considering the overall characteristics of the "improved" algorithm, since the ML optimizations are likely analogous to leveraging based on an overfitted predictive model, and the objective of a power grid is resilience as well as efficiency. Also, depending on how you define efficiency, it may be…