Building faults are estimated to waste 20 percent to 30 percent of a building’s annual energy expenditures. Finding problems, however, often is a highly automated operation – and one that only shows its effectiveness hours later when conditions are shown to improve or not.
The U.S. Department of Energy has provided grant money to researchers at Drexel University to create a cloud-based data analysis tool to help spot undetected problems and indoor environmental issues, according to phys.org. The tool analyzes big data from building components to alert engineers when a problem exists and to suggest fixes. The sources of the data can be thermostats, air and water flow sensors and energy meters.
Last week, Seattle released two reports tracking the energy performance and efficiency of public and private buildings. The city also unveiled an online tool enabling building owners to compare the efficiency of their buildings against national and local benchmarks, according to www.realestaterama.com.
