Elon University introduces new Building Dashboard

Elon University unveils this week its new Building Dashboard, which allows users greater control and ease of use in viewing real-time energy usage of buildings around campus via the Internet.

The Building Dashboard, created by Lucid Design Group, gives users the ability to monitor the electricity usage from any of the 53 buildings on campus that are tracked. Building usage statistics are available in real-time, meaning viewers can see how much energy is used at any time throughout the day.

Users can observe energy use in a variety of units, including kilowatt hours, pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and dollar amounts. For Lindner Hall, the university’s first LEED-Gold Certified Academic building, users can also track water, natural gas and cooling consumption as well as solar generated energy.

Under a “Green Features” tab, users can also learn more about Lindner Hall’s sustainable features, such as low-flow fixtures, building materials, and occupancy sensors.

The redesign of the Building Dashboard offers several new features that were not available in the previous version. Those include interpretive gauges, more compelling representation of the data, integration of the Building Dashboard with Facebook, the ability to view and compare usage of all buildings across campus, and the ability to host competitions between buildings.

Interactive graphs and widgets make the Building Dashboard both informative and engaging.

“The new Building Dashboard has several features which allow for more interaction with the data being presented,” said Elaine Durr, Elon’s sustainability coordinator. “We expect these new features will encourage more student, faculty and staff use of the system.”

To encourage students to use and become familiar with the new website, the Office of Sustainability will be posting weekly trivia questions starting this week. Questions will require students to navigate buildings and features on the Building Dashboard to find answers.

One winner will be selected each week, and win a prize. To participate, “like” Elon Sustainability on Facebook.

For more information, Elon’s new Building Dashboard is accessible online at http://www.buildingdashboard.net/elon.