Complexity
Measures of complexity - http://web.mit.edu/esd.83/www/notebook/Complexity.PDF
For the Seed Eco-Home Hydronic Heating/Cooling System - one measure can be simply defined as the the number of different elements feeding into the system, and the number of connections between them - with these summed when connections exist, but when connections do not exist, the system complexity is not additive for any independent unit.
This number should be defined as the number of connected elements. For example, a standard house may have a natural gas water heater, with natural gas house heat. This will have a complexity of 1 (dumb). In the seed eco home case, the system can be heated via solar, stored in a hot storage tank, connected to a stove, stove doing water heating, stove doing house heating, PV doing backup heating via electric, TEG providing electricity, hydronic tubing providing heat, passive heating of stove, forced air heating of stove, storage of energy in brick wall, storage of energy in floor of house via hydronics, feeding of house hot water from storage, feeding of hot water direct without storage from solar, heating ponds with solar, heating ponds with excess electric, heating ponds with stove, cooling house with hydronic loop, extra heating of storage by stove integration, ready scalability to larger size, and automation for hands-off control, addition of pellet fuel in addition to wood fuel. Then, add the collection of water from roof, reuse of water in the garden, purification via generated electricity, self-pumping by heat-generated electricity, and collection of surface water with purification, and biodigester heating with stove, and biodigester heating via solar, and using the gas generated to heat the system, and storing the gas for transportation fuel, and generating biomass pellets to fuel the stove as another fuel source, and turning them to charcoal for running in gasifier cars, and using charcoal for gas heating during backup, and using propane as gas heating for regular backup, and using the water to make oxygen for oxygen injection to ponds, and generating ozone for water purification. This sums up the options, for a complexity of n=38. 38 times more complex than a dumb system.
