News

NYU Reduces Energy Use in Dorms with Telkonet SmartEnergy

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 02/27/09

New York University (NYU) has finished a pilot of Telkonet SmartEnergy and has begun implementation of the centralized energy management system in dormitories. The university initially conducted a successful two-month trial of the stand-alone Telkonet SmartEnergy system across 20 dorm rooms in 2008, which achieved a 10 percent energy savings by eliminating wasted heating and cooling of unoccupied dorm rooms. Based on these results, NYU moved forward with a project in August 2008, installing NTSE in two of its 24 dorms, with the goal of installing additional dormitories in 2009.

NYU has a goal of achieving a 30 percent reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2017. Heating and cooling in resident hall rooms is a significant contributor to NYU's overall energy use, the university said in a statement. The program is also eligible for rebates through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

The NTSE system has achieved 147 hours of HVAC runtime reduction per room over a four-month period. The installation enables the campus to monitor and manage each individual room's HVAC from a central location.

The new implementation also provides the university with additional flexibility during student breaks, when the rooms are unoccupied. This "deep sleep" mode prevents the problem of freezing pipes in rooms left with the heating off or from wasting energy if it is continuously left on. The NTSE system also allows for the adjustment of setpoints in response to any load curtailment events.

The energy management system is also in use at Houston's Rice University and Babson College in Wellesley, MA.