2 Bit Hacker

Been thinking a bit lately about projects to keep me busy in the new apartment, and I’ve got a couple of ideas that I think will be pretty neat.

First, I’ve been interested in tracking the temperature in my apartment. There is only one thermostat, and I can’t think of a good way to pull any info off of it, so I’ve been looking into other sensor equipment. The iButton stuff looks pretty promising; the temp-only sensor buttons are pretty inexpensive, and the HA7Net looks like a good way to interface to them without having to mess around with line level protocols. Since I don’t use the landline phones, I’m thinking I’ll cut off the connection to the phone company and reuse the existing phone jacks in the apartment to make a 1-wire bus. Just solder an RJ-11 plug onto the temp sensor iButtons, and I can put a sensor everywhere there’s a wall jack! The controller is about $155 and the sensors are $7.50/each in the quantities I’d be looking at.

The other thing I’d like to monitor is power consumption. I’ve got a Kill-a-watt, but that only works for a single outlet. I’ve been eying The Energy Detective, which installs into your breaker panel with a number of inductive probes and a connection to communicate it’s readings over the power lines (similar to X10.) The only problem is their software is currently only for Windows. The older version had a serial port on the receiver to communicate with, the new version has USB, and I suspect it’s just a USB to serial adapter of some kind. To do what I want to do (feed the data into Munin) I’d have to figure out how to talk to the thing, which might make for a good project. T.E.D. sells for $145.

I’m also going to need a new vacuum cleaner. The old one is Delia’s, so it’ll be going away. I’m leaning toward spending the extra money and buying a Dyson, specifically the DC 25. The reviews are all very good on them, and it sounds like they last forever. Seems like one of those things where it’s worth to spend the extra up front and get something you’re happy with instead of skimping and replacing it later because you hate it.

Okay, the plans have been finalized! I am going to be moving to another unit in this complex, a two-bedroom that costs $330 less per month than my current two bedroom (at least for the next year, then it goes up by $200, but I intend to move again at that point.) With my other utility cost savings, this should drop my monthly expenses by $492, which almost entirely covers the amount that Delia used to contribute, so I can continue my savings plan as it has been.

The only tricky bit is I have to move entirely on February 28th, and for that, I will need help. I know I’ve been relying on my friends a lot lately, but anyone willing and able to help with the move would be greatly appreciated, and I’ll gladly pay for a grand feast in your honor once the task is done.

My plan is to spend my spare time in the next month reducing the amount of stuff I have to move. I intend to donate most of my books to the local library (feel free to look over the list and claim anything you’d like,) donate my excess clothing to Goodwill or something similar, and give away my excess computer junk that I rarely touch anymore.

I don’t feel like it’s going to be all that bad. I have a few pieces of large furniture (bed, couch, a couple desks) but not that much little stuff to move. I’m looking forward to the fresh start in a new place all to myself.

It occurs to me that my previous calculations on savings are flawed. In order to actually save more than I’m saving now, I need to reduce monthly spending by more than $500, in order to compensate for the lack of the money that Delia used to contribute. That pretty much rules out the apartment building right next to work.

After chatting with Big Dave though, I am hopeful about being able to move into another unit in the same complex. Apparently his daughter transferred to another unit a couple of months into a year lease. I will definitely need to talk to them about that. Delia has also expressed an interest in taking over the current apartment, so she wouldn’t have to move all her stuff. No idea how the management company will want to deal with that, as currently my name is the only one on the lease.

Unfortunately, this is all hitting at the same time as a ton of stuff going on at work, so I’m unable to take any time off to deal with moving.

So, I’m living on my own again, and I think it’s time to make some changes. First off, this apartment is too big for me, and too expensive to live in alone. So, I intend to move. My goal is to move by the end of February, thus maximizing the amount of time I have to recoup the cost of the lease break fee over the year. Lease break is one months rent, so $1,435. If I break end of February, that’s only 2 months into the lease, so I have 10 months to recovery the cost in order for it to make sense not to ride out the lease, so I need to find a lease that’s at least $143.50 less per month.

I’ve been considering Manchester Place, as it is literally right next door to work. Their lowest cost 1 bedroom unit is $1,155/month, a savings of $280/mo. And that’s not counting the reduction in driving, as I’d only need to use the Prius on the weekends.

Also considering some other cost cutting measures, dropping television service, the TiVo subscription, GameFly, dropping Netflix to the 1 disc plan, and such.

That’s a yearly savings of $5,304, which I intend to throw towards a down payment on a townhouse once my next lease is up. The Comcast doesn’t drop to zero as I intend to keep my own Internet access, although I could possibly just leech off of the connection at work. The location is only a couple of blocks from the CO as well, so DSL is a strong possibility.

We shall see. I intend to make some phone calls tomorrow. There’s also a townhouse rental place on the north end of the city that looks interesting.