Carnegie Mellon reveals office plug load research results
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's (CMU) School of Architecture have developed a dashboard that helps people to see how much energy they use at work and how to reduce this use to help the environment.
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The "Intelligent Dashboard," funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy-Efficient Buildings Hub and created by Ray Yun, a doctoral student in the School of Architecture, is being used to evaluate plug load energy savings in the workplace. By helping building occupants see their actual energy use, providing recommendations for ways to save energy, and allowing the online ability to control plug loads at each desk, the research is proving that dashboards can save energy.
"Office workers have no big incentive to put any effort into conserving energy at work, since they don't pay the bills," Yun said. "Without providing rewards or penalties or forcing workers to use our dashboard, we have successfully assisted them in voluntarily acting on behalf of the environment."
Field testing of the Intelligent Dashboard for Occupants (ID-O) engaged 80 employees at a major Pittsburgh corporation specializing in online communication, consultation and control supported by plug-in devices that measure the energy consumption of each device and provide digital on-off control. Office occupants were divided into four groups to evaluate the effectiveness of different interfaces.
Group A was the control group and was only monitored. Group B could see their ongoing energy usage on a dashboard but had no online control. Group C could see their energy use and had the ability to control their usage online. Group D was given energy use monitors, online controls and the ability to use their work schedule on a calendar to control unnecessary plug loads.
After six weeks, Group D averaged a 35.4 percent savings in their plug load energy consumption. Without the calendar automation, Group C averaged 20.2 percent energy savings, while Group B with information but no online control averaged 9 percent energy savings. Group A, the one with no dashboard, saved just 3.6 percent.
"Energy dashboards for plug load savings in the workplace are critical to saving electricity in a nation scrambling to produce electricity without environmental damage," said Vivian Loftness, CMU professor and former head of the School of Architecture. "Buildings consume about 40 percent of all energy used in the U.S. and about 70 percent of the nation's electricity. As a nation, we have a huge obligation to clean up our act."
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