Renewable energy technology developers theEnergyCrowd.com has created a novel use for the online messaging service Twitter.
Performance data from theEnergyCrowd's experimental domestic passive solar energy and heat storage system is being relayed to members of the development team around the world as a series of short Twitter messages, or 'Tweets'.
The numeric message consists of a string of temperature and solar energy level measurements that can be transferred from Twitter to a spreadsheet.
Each message conveys the data from nine measurements, which include solar energy (Watts/m²), outside air temperature, temperature at in outhouse at base of solar chimney, temperature at the top of solar chimney, temperature in the short term energy store, temperature in the loft space, temperature at vent outlet, temperature on ground floor and the temperature on first floor.
Cambridge-based theEnergyCrowd have recently added a short-term energy storage unit to their passive solar heating system. The storage unit enables solar energy captured and converted into heat in the late afternoon to be used to heat the house in the evening - eliminating the need for any other form of heating in the late winter and early spring.
With 39% of the UK's energy currently being used for heating, theEnergyCrowd regard its current project as an important piece of research into alternative ways of providing space heating for existing houses. It believes that, due to the simplicity of the technology involved, it may be possible to retrofit passive solar energy systems for less than the cost of installing solar panels.
Peter Kruger, founder of theEnergyCrowd.com, said the the use of Twitter to disseminate results could help households keep track on energy bills and resource consumption.
He added: "We see the way this current research project is structured as being as important as the technology being developed. We believe that crowd-sourced based research has a key role to play in the energy market and that its growth will be driven by the increasing availability of social networking and collaborative software."
As well as applying Twitter as an engineering communications tool, theEnergyCrowd are also using the MindMeister collaborative online mind mapping service to develop and evaluate new alternative energy technologies.
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