Science:
Buildings use 40% of the primary energy supplied in the US, and
more than 70% of all generated electricity, primarily for
heating, cooling, and lighting.About 20% of the energy used by
buildings can potentially be saved by correcting faults,
including malfunctions and unnecessary operation. Another 10 to
20% can be saved by deploying advanced control systems to
regulate temperature and air flow inside the buildings.The
energy efficiency resource recoverable through such improved
building controls and fault detection corresponds to the output
from hundreds of power plants, equivalent to more than
one-third of US coal-fired power production.Realizing these
substantial savings will require introducing intelligence into
the infrastructure of buildings, to distribute the optimization
of their operation and detection of their faults
say
Neil Gershenfeld, Stephen Samouhos, and Bruce
Nordman.
