Social Network Shares Building Energy Consumption

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 06/15/10

A new social network that is expected to be released in summer 2010 lets people view, compare, and share energy and water usage data for their buildings. Lucid Design Group's Building Dashboard Network will be used in the 2010 Campus Conservation Nationals, a November competition that lets universities square off to see who can reduce their energy consumption the most.

Lucid develops building dashboard technology that allows occupants to connect personal electricity, water, and natural gas consumption with the actions and events that take place within buildings. The company said that resource use feedback and real-time energy use competitions have helped organizations reduce consumption by 5 percent to 20 percent on a long-term basis. The dashboard includes graphs and animated gauges showing kilowatt-hours, cost, and carbon dioxide emissions on the Web or on touchscreen displays in buildings.

The new social network will allow building owners and managers to set up profile pages featuring building avatars and real-time energy and water use "You can easily search for buildings, compare performance, and set up energy reduction competitions across the Building Dashboard Network," said Michael Murray, Lucid's CEO. "When people have timely information on resource use--particularly in comparison to others--they make significant behavioral changes that reduce consumption and result in tangible financial savings and environmental benefit."

The Building Dashboard Network will integrate with Facebook and Twitter to post updates to personal profile pages and feeds. Features will include energy apps and widgets for making comparisons across uses, buildings, communities, and groups; nationwide energy competitions and community comparisons; real-time budget tracking; network-wide searching; streaming video; Google mashups, discussion feeds; and green tips.

Lucid's institutional customers include Yale University in New Haven, CT; the University of California Office of the President in Oakland; and Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green.

About the Author

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

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