Energy conservation program to begin in March
The program will monitor energy usage in three residence halls.
Published Feb. 3, 2009
Students in Schurz, Hatch and College Avenue residence halls are about to find out exactly what it costs to leave the lights on.
Sustain Mizzou, a student-run, non-profit organization, is implementing a computer program that monitors energy consumption called Building Dashboard.
The program connects directly to utility meters and transmits data to a Web site, which is then compiled and made available to students. Building Dashboard was designed by Lucid Design Group, an Oakland, Calif.-based software company. The program is used in commercial buildings, secondary schools and universities nationwide.
The program is being pioneered at MU by Sustain Mizzou adviser Ben Datema. He applied for and received a $25,000 grant from the Information Technology Committee to implement Dashboard in three residence halls: Schurz, Hatch and College Avenue.
"They should all be up and running before March unless we run into a snag," Datema said.
Initially, the program will only monitor electricity but has the capacity to monitor other utilities.
"Our goal, kind of an arbitrary goal, is a 15 percent energy use reduction," Datema said. "Energy Management said that would be ambitious, which I am glad to hear, because I like to aim high."
Datema said reducing energy consumption could be broken down into two plans of attack, infrastructure change and behavior. Infrastructure change includes updating equipment, changing light bulbs and promoting energy conservation through the material goods used by MU.
"Basically the reason I wanted to do this is because Energy Management is a world-class operation, and they've done essentially everything you can on the infrastructure side of things," Datema said. "The one thing they haven't hit very hard yet is the behavior side, which is the other 50 percent of the equation. Because you can have really efficient lights and really efficient equipment, but if people don't turn them off when they're done, they're still using more energy than they should."
Sustain Mizzou plans to market the program by making the Dashboard Web site the homepage in the three residence halls using the system. The overall plan is to make custom post-it notes to label appliances with specific energy consumption data printed on each one.
For example, a hall light would be labeled with the kilowatt hours used, and the light switch would be labeled with how much power usage it controls.
Although energy conservation is a primary goal, education is another objective of the Dashboard program. Residential Life Director Frankie Minor said two main goals of the program would be to educate students to help them make decisions about energy usage and conservation and to reduce costs and redirect funds to sustainable energy endeavors.
Although Building Dashboard could revolutionize the way students function in the residence halls, not everyone is aware of the program.
Schurz resident Matt Allen said he never heard of Building Dashboard and was unsure as to how his energy consumption habits would change.
"I might pay more attention to it, I guess," Allen said.
He said he would most likely turn off the light when he went out, once in a while.
