Making Energy Use Understandable and Engaging
Published: February 8, 2012
Kevin Vranes
Building dashboards are popping up in facilities everywhere. Often displayed on kiosks, these interactive websites provide information on a building’s resource consumption (like energy and water use) and other green features. You can find these kiosks in building lobbies, fast-food restaurants, college dorms, and other public spaces. Building dashboards enable employees and visitors to understand the building’s—and its owner’s—energy performance.
Unlike energy management software and building automation systems, which allow building operators and energy managers to control and monitor building systems, building dashboard websites are designed for visitors and nontechnical staff. The main purpose of a dashboard is to encourage users to understand, explore, and take ownership of the energy use of the building they’re working in or visiting. In addition to viewing real-time electricity, gas, and water consumption data as well as renewable energy production information, users are typically able to:
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Compare consumption data across years, buildings, or floors in a building
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Toggle between units such as kilowatt-hours (kWh), dollars, pounds of carbon dioxide, laptop hours, and car miles
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Normalize data to per-square-foot or per-person values
Many dashboards also offer tools other than energy consumption data to draw audiences in. For example, users may be able to:
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Explore a building’s energy-efficiency and green features via photos and interactive diagrams (for example, a McDonald’s in Riverside, California, installed a building dashboard to allow users to explore a three-dimensional model of the restaurant, discover its green features, and learn more about those features)
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View tips to learn how they can reduce energy use at work or at home
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Track the building’s progress against a kWh goal or dollar budget, or see their ranking in a building-to-building or floor-to-floor competition
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Learn which credits the building has earned under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system
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Test their knowledge of the building’s green features through an interactive quiz
Building dashboards can also encourage occupants to reduce their energy consumption through behavioral tools such as goal setting and competitions. If you’d like more information about building dashboards, including how to choose a vendor, please contact us. |
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About the Author
Kevin Vranes
DIRECTOR OF ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY PRODUCTS
Kevin Vranes has more than a decade of experience working on greenhouse gas (GHG) and climate-change issues. He has worked with numerous corporations and utilities on GHG management (inventories, auditing, and reporting), carbon risk, supply chain emissions and life-cycle assessments, and project analysis. Kevin was a senior legislative staffer in the Washington, DC, office of Senator Ron Wyden, where he worked on energy and environmental legislation, including the Energy Policy Act of 2005. He holds a PhD in geophysics (physical oceanography, climatology, and atmospheric sciences) from Columbia University, and he was a Public Policy Fellow of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.
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