Major building automation companies have jumped on the green band wagon and developed and released Energy “Dashboard” software programs as an add-on feature to their standard “Graphical User Interface” (GUI) software. Most energy dashboards monitor the buildings control points along with the KW meter. Data is collected several times a minute and stored in a cloud or local server. Powerful analytic s are used to provide valuable insight into how to reduce wasted energy by optimizing operations. The most popular use is to reduce demand in response to a utility outage. The key features of the dashboard enable facility energy managers to view live, real-time energy use data at a glance on a simple graphical display rather than waiting until the end of the month when the energy bill arrives. Reviewing the utility bill at the end of the month is usually too late to make an operation change. Before dashboards we relied on trend logs as a similar real time data gathering tool while commissioning projects back in the 80's. As use becomes more common, data shows the dashboard is providing a badly needed tool for rapid decision making to optimize a facilities energy and operational performance. A recent study by the Lawrence Berkeley Labs showed that facilities using energy information systems had a better track record for energy efficiency that those without.

Alpers Engineering Group, LLC