Carnegie Mellon & IBM Apply Analytics for Smart Buildings
Mobile Enterprise, March 6, 2015
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) unveiled a new smarter buildings partnership with IBM to pioneer use of a new cloud-based analytics system for reducing energy and facility operating costs.
By doing so, the institution expects to save approximately 10% on utilities, and nearly $2 million annually when the system is fully deployed across 36 buildings on its Pittsburgh campus.
“Deployment of this technology will drive significant energy and operational savings with a very attractive return on investment. Improved building performance enhances the occupant experience and provides a more effective education and research environment,” said Donald Coffelt, associate VP for Carnegie Mellon University’s Facilities Management Services. “This technology offers us important gains in initiatives related to advanced infrastructure systems research, the Pittsburgh 2030 initiative and a more proactive building and infrastructure management model.”
Campus Technology
Buildings are expected to become the largest consumer of global energy by 2025, according to the National Science and Technology Council. Systems such as elevators, HVAC, lighting and alarms constantly report data across building networks; however, most organizations do not use the data as well as they could to monitor overall building performance, identify trends in building use or improve customer satisfaction.