So we’ve just had our final team project team meeting to review the project, sandwiches all round. We’re delighted that the DUALL project will live on through DMU and JISC both in its current form and as a stepping stone for our new JISC Greening ICT projects, notably Greenview, more on that shortly. For now, as we finish off the project report I thought you might be interested in an extract from the executive summary in our draft project report. See you further on up the road . . .
Key achievements then have been the design of an ICT tool that has started to connect building users with their energy consumption. This has resulted in the development of a campus wide website showcasing the energy, gas and water consumption for all University buildings. Alongside this has been the identification of both the scale of the problem of high electrical baseloads in buildings caused, in part at least, by a culture of simply leaving PCs on in unoccupied hours. The best way of achieving this switch-off may be debated, the current trend seems to be moving towards automatic power-down software systems that allow for centralised control of the workstations by IT departments. How this is done may be debated but the need is clear. To generate 20% more electricity would be far more costly than turning off unused computers at evenings and weekends.
Finally, the question of who is responsibility for energy reduction in the workplace is a complex issue. The employees use of the IT equipment during work-hours is the tip of a complex iceberg that includes the procurement of the machines, the management of the servers and storage of data, and, we think significantly, who is responsible for the energy budgets. DUALL at least has made a start in tackling the issues and through the provision of DMU funded PhD studentship alongside further JISC funding, it is well placed to continue researching this issues as well as partnering with others to develop solutions.
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As we are fast approaching the end of the Duall project we have carried out another baseline evaluation for the Queens building. This will provide important information if they was any impact on the energy consumption as a result from the Duall project outcomes.
Below are the electricity consumption graphs for the Queens building for the previous year when the Duall project began and a graph for this year (1 year after). It should be noted the dates fall under university term time when students are on campus.
Figure 1 shows a consumption graph for electricity in the Queens building. It has a constant high baseload of 120 kWh which remains unchanged even during the week-end for which the building is 85% unoccupied. The daily pattern shows the consumption peaks up towards midday reaching levels of 225 kWh and then gradually decreases towards end of the day. During the week-end the usage remains low however the baseload remains unchanged.
Figure 2 shows the electricity consumption in the Queens building. Again we have a high baseload but a significant difference in size. For this period we have a constant baseload of approximate 95 kWh with daily pattern showing consumption peaks up towards midday but reaching levels below 200 kWh. This is a big difference compared with the data for last year; the constant baseload has dropped from 120 to 95 kWh a saving of 25 kWh which has resulted into reduced peaks during weekday from 225 to 200 kWh. The weekend consumption is low however baseload remains unchanged similarly to the previous year.
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At the request of the DMU Estates department and part of the Duall project we have created a webpage which provides up-to-date information on current electricity use in DMU buildings. The page shows electricity consumption on a monthly basis compared to the same period for the previous year. The page is automatically updated with live data; therefore, a direct comparison should only be made between complete months. Different buildings can be selected from the drop down list. The page can be found here
The Duall webpage shows the electricity consumption of each building at DMU in greater detail. To view the electricity consumption over a given period of time simply select a building from the drop down list and select a period of time. On this page you can also view the carbon emissions (CO2e) generated through the use of electricity and the associated cost of the electricity used. The cost is calculated from a generic cost per unit of electricity for DMU buildings. The page can be found here
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Google Analytics is a very power-full tool which generates detailed statistics about the visitors to your site. We have used this free service offered by Google to track statistics about the visitors to our Duall site.
Here are the results for the first month of tracking which we would like to share with you:
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Firstly happy new year to everyone – Enjoy the first post of 2011.
A quick summary from the last post on Yahoo Widgets – we have developed an energy monitor desktop system using the Yahoo Widgets engine which provides the user with updated energy data for their respective areas. The areas identified are located within the Queens building of DMU and include office staff and students.
We have now successfully completed the development of the Yahoo Widget and have so far rolled out the application for use on 2 out of 3 selected areas. The areas that have successfully rolled out include the Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development (IESD) and the Marketing Admissions Office. The 3rd area identified for monitoring was the third floor Lab which contains approximately 50 PC machines however due to sub-metering and operational problems we have not yet been able to monitor this area. The current delay is being dealt with and the widget will be rolled out to end-users once this is rectified. Before the installation of the widget the end-users were given a demonstration on how to use and interpret the data. Currently the widget is only accessible by a defined set of users until we have received feedback. The next step will be to setup a questionnaire for the end-users of the widget to receive feedback and rollout the widget to university campus. More updates will be given shortly.
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It is about time for another technical update and progress on the DUALL project. As mentioned in the previous posts we will develop a simple and user friendly energy monitor desktop system for end-users. The good news is we are nearly there and system roll out will be implemented in less than a week.
After several team meetings and discussions we decided the end-user system had to be multi-platform, user-friendly and have a smart interface, hence we all agreed for the best platform to build the energy monitor system will be Yahoo Widgets.
Yahoo Widgets is a free application platform for Mac OS and Microsoft Windows (all versions of windows). The engine uses a JavaScript runtime environment combined with an XML interpreter to run small applications referred to as widgets. The Widgets run using the Yahoo engine and are located on the user’s PC desktop. We will provide a ‘1 click install’ option to the users which will install both the required Yahoo engine and the widget.
For the widget to work successfully we had to get the energy data from the sql server. We used the Web Services approach and developed methods that would return the energy data. The web service methods are accessed using HTTP request protocols within the widget.
Below are screenshots of the final design of the widget:
The widget content is very simplified and user-friendly. It consists of two tabs:
1. The Energy tab includes a comparative bar chart showing daily consumption compared to same day last week. It gives the user an overview of whether the consumption is more today than same day last week or less. This will motivate the user to finding out the reason for the change and positively lead to lowering consumption if possible.
2. The Cost tab is represented financially where the user is given a daily target to meet. Because the energy monitoring is not per single user these targets are aimed at group of people working together to reduce they energy consumption. If the actual consumption is below the target the user is given a tick on the display and otherwise a cross if exceeded. The energy consumption is represented by 2 gauges – target and actual gauge.
Only the Queens building currently is sub-metered and we can identify 2/3 departments which fall under this sub-metering. The widget installation will be completed in these departments and will also be accessible by other DMU users.
The ideas of the widget content and use of daily comparative chart and cost measures was implemented by researching/studying the Tom Hargreaves (Tyndall Centre) paper on “The Visible Energy Trial: insights from Qualitative Interviews”. This paper provides an excellent overview of the thoughts and feedback of people which were given 3 different energy monitor devices to experiment in their households. Here is a quick summary of the qualitative interviews done with the end-users:
• Prefer a simple and innovative graphical user interface.
• Users did not prefer the speedometer dial on all devices which showed the current consumption. They feedback was “it did not tell them anything”.
• Preferred the gauge/fuel tank approach which gives them a target to work towards. This fuel tank approach sets the current and target consumption.
• Users preferred a weekly comparison of energy and costs associated. The users did not understand “Kgs of carbon emissions” and preferred cost over CO2.
• “CO2 and kWh measurements are meaningless” according to one trial user.
• Similar household measurements are useful for comparing energy consumption.
More updates on the installation of the widget and path to web services will be provided soon.
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1. Current Baseload
It is well known that there is a high electricity baseload for the Queens building. This is currently averaging 100 kWh which remains constant at night, weekends, bank holidays, term-time and vacation periods (see figure 1).
Figure 1: Queens Building Baseload 1/09/10 to 15/10/10
2. Results of the switch off.
As part of the DUALL project (http://duall.dmu.ac.uk/) we decided to have a Queens switch-off weekend (16-17 Oct 2010) in an attempt to understand the baseload and the impact of ICT equipment on that load. With the help of members of the Faculty of Technology and IESD we switched-off approximately 500 computers and lighting. From the chart below (see figure 2) it can be seen we had a clear reduction in the base load of 20 kWh (from 100 kWh to 80 kWh, i.e. a 20% reduction).
Figure 2: Queens Building baseload 1/10/2010 to 18/10/10
Below is another figure comparing this weekend (16-17 Oct 2010 Switch-Off weekend) to the previous (9-10 Oct 2010) (see figure 3).
Figure 3: Comparison of the last two weekend’s consumption).
On Saturday the difference between total consumption for the two weekends was 781 kWh and similarly 456 kWh for Sunday. This is a big drop compared to normal weekend comparisons.
2.1 Savings:
Based on the price of 13.2p per kWh a typical day in Queens building costs around £420 (inclusive of base-load). We have worked out that the baseload of 100 kWh costs £316. Reducing the weekend baseload by 20% resulted in a financial saving of £134. The carbon dioxide emissions as a result of that reduction was 546 kg CO2 . Table 1 outlines the projected potential savings for the Queens Building if all PCs were switched off in evenings and weekends – i.e, when they are not is use.
Table 1: Projected savings for the Queens Building
| Total consumption x Cost | Savings | ||
| Weekend savings | Saturday 9 Oct consumption: 2696 kWh
Cost = £356 CO2 = 1448 kg 20% saving per day = £71 CO2 20% saving per day = 290 kg Sunday 10 Oct consumption: 2387 kWh Cost (13.2) = £315 CO2= 1282 kg 20% saving per day = £63 CO2 20% saving per day = 256 kg |
£134
546 kg CO2 |
|
| Evening savings
(assuming 8pm – 8am) |
Friday 15 Oct ( Thur 8pm – Fri 8am) –
Consumption 1062 kWh Cost (13.2p) = £140 CO2 = 570 kg 20% saving per day = £28 CO2 20% saving per day = 114 kg |
Weekly = £140
CO2 = 570 Kg |
|
| Estimated Total savings: | Weekly = £274
Monthly = £1,178 Annually = £14,138 CO2 Weekly = 1.1 tonne CO2 Monthly = 4.8 tonne CO2 Annually = 57.6 tonne |
||
3. Conclusion
The Queens Switch off was an attempt to understand the cause of the high baseload in Queens and the contribution of ICT to that load. It was not a perfect piece of research, rather the result of a few individuals turning off as much equipment, mainly PCs, as they could find in the time available. What we found was that the default position towards ICT equipment and lighting in the Queens building is to leave everything on through evenings, weekends and bank holidays. This research is not making attempting to make a judgement on that position (though we do have one!), rather to simply show the financial and environmental cost of that decision. And as a result we have shown that ICT equipment and lights equates to 20% of that baseload – a weekly cost of £280 or approximately 1 tonne of CO2. Looking at similar energy figures for other DMU buildings leads us believe that the Queens building is not an exception. A monthly financial saving of £1,178 could be multiplied by the number of DMU buildings and lead to savings running into tens of thousands of pounds.
We think this shows a good ‘return on our investment’, i.e. simply taking the time to switch off equipment has resulted in some ‘quick wins’ in terms of cost savings, improved resource use and reduced CO2 emissions. DMU has joined the 10:10 campaign; pledging to reduce its emissions by 10% in the next 12 months. This weekend switch off has shown that a relatively simply activity of switching unused PCs off over the weekend can easily contribute towards that target. It has also shed light on the problem of the Queens baseload, further research is now needed to investigate the cause of the remaining 80% baseload. This will be picked up as part of the Living Lab project. Further research is also now required to investigate the potential for automatic switch off systems for PCs, what difference does it make leaving PC’s on reduced power standby for example?
Please continue visiting the DUALL website for further information or follow us on twitter: dualldmu.
Special thanks to everyone in the Queens Building for their assistance.
Farhan and I had fun going round the Queens Building on Friday evening switching lots of computers and lights off. Special thanks go to Nathan Jeffrey for his support, along with Rob Liddiard, a PhD student from IESD. We have the results from the switch off and are currently pondering their implications.
It was amazing how many computers and lights were left on over night (all the PCs in the pictures are left on 24/7). Of course there are a myriad of social reasons going on as well. This switch off, and the engagement required beforehand started some fascinating discussions about what we value. Do we, for example, value the experience of students walking into a classroom and being able to start work immediately (and in a 50 min lab session time is a real pressure). What is the environmental cost of that student experience? Can we expect students to be responsible and be capable of switching on and off their PCs as the need arises, rather than simply leaving everything on, all the time! What is the role and responsibility of HEIs in teaching responsible environmental citizenship, teaching students (and staff!) that decisions we make have consequences (environmentally, economically and socially).
Going round empty rooms and switching of PCs and lights that are consuming energy for no purpose brought home the fact that over 30% of energy is wasted in buildings. In times of financial austerity and diminishing natural resources I’m not sure I’m comfortable with such a wasteful approach.
Anyway, we’ll be chewing over the figures in the next 24 hrs or so and posting some reflections.One key outcome of this process is that we hope to put a price, both economically and environmentally on the choices we make – for example, leaving all PCs on to provide a ‘better student experience’. All very interesting…..