Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is working with IBM to create “smarter buildings”.
CMU wants to save 10 percent on utilities using a cloud based analytics system to reduce energy and operating costs.
It thinks the savings will be worth up to $2 million a year when the IBM system is used over 36 buildings on its campus in Pittsburgh.
Donald Coffelt, a VP for CMU’s facilities management service said using the IBM system will give a “very attractive return on investment”.
He said: “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.”
Estimates are that buildings will be the biggest consumer of global energy in 10 years time but while systems report data across building networks, most organisations don’t use the the data as well as they could.
The CMU technology will kick off with a pilot in nine buildings and then be extended to other buildings, with full implementation ready in three years, said IBM.
