wrote:
....
Nathan and I have settled on a mini-pc for a smart whole house fan controller
....
http://www.ewayco.com/51-embedded-sy...ed-system.html

It uses 15 watts. Is there a way to reduce the power, and does it
have 256 or 512M flash memory? It also comes with a wireless option.

Have you considered one of the gumstix computers? They may not be any
cheaper but the base configuration gives you a couple of serial ports
and only uses about half a watt, less when idle. They can run Linux
and use CF memory.

http://docwiki.gumstix.org/Frequentl...Heat_and_power

Then again, how fast a computer do you need for this kind of stuff?
Have you considered a PDA? They come with their own display and are
pretty thrifty with the power requirements.

For that matter, you might even go so far back as the famous Radio
Shack Model 100 which crops up on Ebay for $20 or so pretty regular.
It only uses a watt or so and has basic built in.

Anthony