Harvard Tries Air Efficiency System in New Green Building

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 06/14/10

Harvard Law School is implementing a new air efficiency system in a building that's expected to receive LEED Gold Certification. The university has gone public with its use of Aircuity OptiNet to improve indoor air efficiency and decrease the maintenance and energy costs associated with a new 250,000 square foot structure that will hold classrooms, a student center, and a clinical wing.

The expectation is that the university will be able to reduce the carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels in the facility while still meeting energy efficiency standards.

The original building design had 101 CO₂ sensors built into the project. By using Aircuity's system of air sampling units, the university was able to reduce to four the number of sensors needed to sample the same number of locations.

The company said OptiNet continuously senses and analyzes a building's indoor environment and provides alerts to the building management systems, making adjustments to the ventilation flow as needed, thereby optimizing airflow. It added that the university anticipated a return on investment of 1.1 years.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Training the Next Generation of Space Cybersecurity Experts

    CT asked Scott Shackelford, Indiana University professor of law and director of the Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance, about the possible emergence of space cybersecurity as a separate field that would support changing practices and foster future space cybersecurity leaders.

  • modern college building with circuit and brain motifs

    Anthropic Launches Claude for Education

    Anthropic has announced a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.

  • AI microchip, a cybersecurity shield with a lock, a dollar coin, and a laptop with financial graphs connected by dotted lines

    Survey: Generative AI Surpasses Cybersecurity in 2025 Tech Budgets

    Global IT leaders are placing bigger bets on generative artificial intelligence than cybersecurity in 2025, according to new research by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

  • university building surrounded by icons for AI, checklists, and data governance

    Improving AI Governance for Stronger University Compliance and Innovation

    AI can generate valuable insights for higher education institutions and it can be used to enhance the teaching process itself. The caveat is that this can only be achieved when universities adopt a strategic and proactive set of data and process management policies for their use of AI.