Posted by Andy on Wednesday, November 02, 2011.

20,000,000 calculations . . . spooky

Haunted house

Sometime in the darkest hours of Halloween night, our CM1 platform processed its 20,000,000th calculation. Hurray!

But wait: after a couple days of intense analysis, we’re concluding that the Residence impact being computed was that of a bona fide haunted house. We present our argument below.

Here’s the raw request characteristics (location removed to protect the innocent residents):

{ :acquisition => "2008-09-01",
  :air_conditioner_use => "NOT USED AT ALL",
  :annual_coal_volume_estimate => "0.0",
  :annual_fuel_oil_volume_estimate => "0.0",
  :annual_kerosene_volume_estimate => "0.0",
  :annual_propane_volume_estimate => "0.0",
  :annual_wood_volume_estimate => "0.0",
  :clothes_drier_use => "1",
  :dishwasher_use => "4 TO 6 TIMES A WEEK",
  :floors => "1",
  :floorspace_estimate => "111.484",
  :freezer_count => "0",
  :monthly_electricity_use_estimate => "600.0",
  :occupation => "0.937",
  :ownership => "false",
  :refrigerator_count => "1",
  :residence_class => "APARTMENT BUILDING WITH 2-4 UNITS",
  :residents => "3",
  :retirement => "2009-10-07",
  :timeframe => "2011-01-01/2012-01-01",
  :urbanity => "TOWN" }

As you see, the evidence is clear. Who, besides restless spirits, never use air conditioning? And the 94% occupancy rate means the “residents” are absent 21 days per year—roughly the number of days with a full or near-full moon. Could these dear tenants be, perhaps, quietly stalking the unaware?

Sure, we can’t explain why these three poltergeist lodgers would need a refrigerator or wash so many dishes, but, after all, there’s no accounting for taste.

So there we have it, proof positive: ghosts are using CM1.

What blog is this?

Safety in Numbers is Brighter Planet's blog about climate science, Ruby, Rails, data, transparency, and, well, us.

Who's behind this?

We're Brighter Planet, the world's leading computational sustainability platform.

Who's blogging here?

  1. Patti Prairie CEO