Energy dashboards are monitoring and display systems that provide information about building energy use. Dashboards may provide information, alarms, and complex trends to support engineers in identifying energy inefficiencies in a building. Public interfaces may contain simpler trends, with a greater focus on aesthetics and framing of content to promote interest and engagement. We have developed the Campus Energy Education Dashboard (CEED), a map-based dashboard that shows energy data for buildings on a large university campus. Analytic features, including energy use intensity metrics, realtime demand data, and historic data are available for our engineer and data analyst stakeholders. For students and staff, we focus on engagement features, such as providing context for the data, prioritizing aesthetics, and layering information in successive levels of detail. CEED enables Facilities Management to improve energy efficiency and empowers building occupants with knowledge of and input into campus energy operations. We will describe our design process, which included A/B and usability testing of design elements that informed successive iterations of the dashboard.

Despite the significant amount of energy spent on Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) at universities, thermal comfort conditions in campus buildings are frequently poor. Conventional HVAC management systems at universities are typically out of the hands of building occupants and facilities management departments have limited resources to involve them. These factors can lead to over-heating or over-cooling and undiagnosed mechanical issues. Previous research has shown that thermal comfort feedback, or participatory thermal sensing, can simultaneously improve energy efficiency and occupant comfort in university buildings. However, these studies have been limited to single campus buildings and restricted populations of occupants. The success, scalability, and sustainability of any participatory thermal sensing program is dependent upon ongoing participation that is meaningful to occupants and useful to facilities management. Therefore, research is warranted to explore patterns of voluntary participation, thermal comfort, and occupant satisfaction in extended, campus-wide deployments of participatory thermal sensing programs. The present research begins to address these gaps in the context of an 18-month, campus-wide deployment of TherMOOstat, a participatory thermal sensing app and HVAC management system at University of California, Davis.

Despite the significant amount of energy spent on Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) at universities, thermal comfort conditions in campus buildings are frequently poor. Conventional HVAC management systems at universities are typically out of the hands of building occupants and facilities management departments have limited resources to involve them. These factors can lead to over-heating or over-cooling and undiagnosed mechanical issues. Previous research has shown that thermal comfort feedback, or participatory thermal sensing, can simultaneously improve energy efficiency and occupant comfort in university buildings. However, these studies have been limited to single campus buildings and restricted populations of occupants. The success, scalability, and sustainability of any participatory thermal sensing program is dependent upon ongoing participation that is meaningful to occupants and useful to facilities management. Therefore, research is warranted to explore patterns of voluntary participation, thermal comfort, and occupant satisfaction in extended, campus-wide deployments of participatory thermal sensing programs. The present research begins to address these gaps in the context of an 18-month, campus-wide deployment of TherMOOstat, a participatory thermal sensing app and HVAC management system at University of California, Davis.

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems are responsible for more than half of the energy consumed in many buildings on university campuses in the US. Despite the significant amount of energy spent on HVAC operations, thermal comfort conditions in campus buildings are frequently poor. Faulty assumptions or a lack of data regarding occupant comfort can lead to energy waste from overheating or overcooling. Additionally, inadequate operational procedures and outdated technology make it difficult for occupant needs to inform temperature management. For example, campuses frequently use “work order” systems to manage temperature issues, but this process is slow and not widely used by students, i.e., the majority of building occupants. Previous research suggests that thermal comfort feedback from occupants can simultaneously drive energy efficiency and improve comfort in university buildings. However, these prior studies were limited to single buildings or zones inside buildings. This paper describes the campus-wide deployment of TherMOOstat, a software tool that solicits thermal feedback from students, and analyzes its impact on energy use and energy management procedures. Thermal feedback can be submitted any time from any building on central campus. Over 10,000 feedback submissions were received across one year, transforming occupants into meaningful sensors. The research team explored manual and automatic methods to link occupant thermal feedback to the energy management system, resulting in improved efficiency and comfort.