Five UBC Buildings Go Head-to-head to Conserve Energy

In a Canadian university first, UBC has launched a public energy monitoring research project to make UBC buildings more comfortable and energy-efficient.

UBC has partnered with Vancouver energy management software company Small Energy Group to track energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions savings in five campus buildings. The results can be seen in real-time at dashboard.smallenergygroup.com. UBC is the first Canadian university to make such information public.

In a related research project, Zosia Brown, a PhD candidate in UBC’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, will investigate how occupants in two of the five buildings can use this real-time energy data to reduce energy consumption and increase comfort.

“UBC has significantly reduced core campus energy and water use since 2001, saving $2.6 million annually,” says Orion Henderson, Associate Director of Climate and Energy in UBC’s Sustainability Office. These kinds of green activities have helped to make UBC the top-ranked Canadian university in the 2008 College Sustainability Report Card of 200 North American post-secondary institutions, he notes.

“UBC reduced daily energy consumption by two per cent for Earth Hour 2008, conserving enough electricity to send a SkyTrain from Vancouver to St John’s, Nfld.,” Henderson adds. “We hope to better that margin everyday over the long-term though this initiative.”

The project will track electricity, steam and water consumption in five campus buildings using software and power meters: Koerner Library, the Fred Kaiser Building, Buchanan Tower, Frank Forward Building and C.K. Choi Building, one several award-winning UBC green buildings.

The real-time monitoring is made possible by energy-monitoring meters installed in 80 campus buildings during UBC Vancouver’s recently completed five-year $38.5-million ECOtrek project, the largest campus energy-retrofit program in Canada.

“Real-time data and analysis enable occupants to understand how their building uses energy, how they compare to other buildings, and what can be done to conserve energy,” says David Helliwell of Small Energy Group. “It sets the stage for a meaningful, long term engagement in the quest to save money and reduce emissions.”

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