Energy Efficiency MicroNews: Navigant Research, Opower, Tecogen, USGBC, ASHRAE, Kiva.org
Shipments of advanced sensors for smart buildings will grow from 1.8 million units in 2013 to 28.4 million by 2020, according to a new report from Navigant Research. Efforts to make buildings smarter and more energy efficient have given rise to a new class of advanced sensors, allowing building systems to better anticipate and respond to changing conditions. These devices can create environments that are both more productive for occupants and more operationally efficient for owners. Annual revenue for these devices will reach nearly $3.7 billion by 2020, the study concludes.
More about the new Navigant Research report
Opower named Mark McLaughlin, Chairman, President, and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, to the company’s Board of Directors. Palo Alto Networks delivers a next-generation security platform that protects thousands of enterprise, government, and service provider networks from cyber threats. Since his tenure, Palo Alto Networks has quickly beaten out competition to become a global leader in network security.
More about Opower naming Mark McLaughlin to it’s Board of Directors
Tecogen‘s TECOCHILL Natural Gas Engine-Driven chillers have received the State of California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development Seismic Certification and the International Building Code Certificate of Compliance for seismic applications. The certifications were a necessary step in maintaining and enhancing the company’s marketability, especially in the hospital and emergency healthcare vertical where the need for seismically certified equipment is critical, said Robert Panora, President and COO of Tecogen. Tecogen’s chillers are available in capacities ranging from 25 to 400 tons, including air-cooled and water-cooled models. The chillers can provide both cooling and heat for a building from a single fuel source, resulting in dramatic savings on energy bills. They also provide significant electrical demand reductions during peak times of the year.
More about Tecogen’s TECOCHILL Natural Gas Engine-Driven Chillers
The U.S. Green Building Council recognized the state of Ohio and the Ohio School Facilities Commission for the 100th LEED certification of a public school building in the state. Ohio leads the country with more LEED-certified public schools than any other state, with hundreds more in the LEED pipeline. Since 2007, the OSFC has required that new school buildings that it funds seek LEED Silver certification, with the goal of achieving Gold. Monroe Central High School of the Switzerland of Ohio Local School District in Monroe County became the 100th public education facility in Ohio to achieve LEED, receiving a Silver certification. Of the 100 certifications, 44 schools have earned LEED Gold or Platinum.
More about Ohio’s LEED-certified school buildings
ASHRAE Published its 2013 version of the Thermal Comfort Standard, which includes major revisions for design and measurement of comfortable spaces. ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55-2013, Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy, combines the 2010 standard and 18 published addenda into a consolidated standard. The core of the standard in Sections 4 and 5 specifies methods to determine thermal environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, air speed and radiant effects) in buildings and other spaces that a significant proportion of the occupants will find acceptable at a certain metabolic rate and clothing level. Other noteworthy additions to the standard include an allowance for the cooling effect of air movement as a way to extend the upper limit of the comfort zone in naturally conditioned spaces and the addition of a predictive model for occupant clothing behavior based on extensive field research. These additions provide new methods for improving occupant comfort while minimizing energy use.
More about ASHRAE’s 2013 Thermal Comfort Standard
Kiva.org won Google’s Global Impact Award and received $3 million to launch Kiva Labs, a new initiative to deliver the power of crowdfunded loans to critical solutions in agriculture, clean energy, mobile information, and other transformative technologies. Loans crowdfunded through Kiva Labs are as varied as a bicycle-powered generator that charges lights for communities with no electricity to mobile apps that help farmers in isolated regions share real-time agriculture knowledge across communities with limited connectivity.
