Real-time Monitoring of a Super Insulated Navajo Dwelling

Last Friday Robin and I spent a day on the Navajo Reservation, East of Flagstaff, near the town of Leupp helping the group Engineers without Borders build a new dwelling.  We drove down the night before from Saint George, Utah.  I really love driving over the shoulder of the Kaibab Plateau at Jacob Lake, Arizona, and then descending into House Rock Valley and then crossing the Colorado River on Navajo Bridge.

On the road again.  Just beyond Navajo Bridge and about to join Highway 89 South to Flagstaff.

My friend Roger Hansen, an Engineer at U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Provo, Utah asked us to help.  He has been involved with Engineers without Borders for 10 or so years and has been on projects in Uganda and on the Navajo Reservation.

Roger Hansen, the ring leader.

Little Navajo cutie.  She played non-stop the whole day outside.  

I was asked to help install instrumentation which monitors the performance of the super insulated dwelling.  We put in about 10 air temperature and humidity sensor scattered around the home.  Data is collected, transmitted via cellular phone, and displayed on a web application.

That's me on the ladder.  We were installing a temperature/humidity sensor in the ceiling.

The hard life of the Navajo Dog.

Black guy out herding sheep.  Robin asked who he was and one of the Navajos replied "In-law."

The South side of the home.  Those were some kind of solar hot air collectors on the side of the home.