Installation of the wireless gateway took just 10 minutes inside the main office of Pepper Drive School. Before we knew it, we had near-real time electricity usage data in BuildingOS.
San Diego, CA (PRWEB) March 05, 2014
Working with Lucid and Rainforest Automation, Santee School District now boasts the first “Home Area Network” (HAN) smart meter wireless gateway installed in a school in the San Diego area, providing facility managers and administrators with easy access to real-time electricity data.
Lucid and Rainforest have jointly announced the availability of the integrated hardware and software used at Santee, which requires zero electrician work and can be installed in minutes. Lucid's software, BuildingOS® and Building Dashboard®, allows facility managers and occupants to have visibility into energy consumption with easy-to-use analytics tools for identifying efficiency opportunities.
“Installation of the wireless gateway took just 10 minutes inside the main office of Pepper Drive School. Before we knew it, we had near-real time electricity usage data in BuildingOS,” said Christina Becker, Director of Maintenance, Operations & Facilities at Santee School District. “We’re installing this solution at the rest of our nine school buildings to monitor and improve their performance, and to engage faculty and students during energy reduction competitions.”
“Like any school district, Santee wants to focus its resources on maintenance and new energy efficiency measures, and easy access to energy information helps achieve this goal,” said Vladi Shunturov, CEO of Lucid. “Wireless meter gateway providers like Rainforest are providing Santee instant value by engaging students and staff and helping reduce energy costs.”
Lucid and the Santee School District worked closely with SDG&E in the endeavor. “Santee School District serves as an exciting example of what other commercial customers can do right now with their smart meter data to use energy more efficiently and save on their utility bills,” said Ted Reguly, Director of Customer Programs and Projects at SDG&E.
California K-12 Kilowatt Challenge:
Santee School District and Clovis Unified School District saved $16,000 during three-week, district-wide electricity reduction competitions in 2013. The districts won a custom Building Dashboard website from Lucid to run their competitions by placing first in the California K-12 Kilowatt Challenge, a statewide contest sponsored by Lucid.
The Challenge pits schools against one another in friendly competition to see who can conserve the most energy. The southern California winner was Santee, who saved 14.7% on their electrical bills. The district's facilities manager used SDG&E's Green Button functionality from its customer web portal to download electrical readings and upload those readings into Lucid's software, which kept track of savings in a publicly-accessible Building Dashboard website for students and teachers to check every day.
Now, with near-real time access to their SDG&E smart meter data, Pepper Drive School can participate in the next California K-12 Kilowatt Challenge armed with an interactive, fully automated tool for the next generation of students.
About Lucid:
Lucid is a privately held software company in Oakland, California. The company pioneered the concept of real-time energy and water use feedback and reduction competitions with Building Dashboard® and launched BuildingOS®, the world’s first online operating system for buildings. BuildingOS quickly aggregates energy data from multiple vendors’ metering and building systems into one unified source, giving building managers easy access to energy information and analytics. The intuitive cloud-based software eliminates vendor lock-in, dramatically reduces system integration costs, and enables building owners to implement and verify behavioral and operational efficiency improvements. Lucid’s software is used by the world’s leading companies and institutions. http://www.luciddesigngroup.com
About Rainforest Automation:
Rainforest Automation, Inc. makes products that allow utilities and their customers to manage real time energy use. Our primary product focus is on the ZigBee wireless HAN (Home Area Network), and connecting the smart meter data stream to the premise and the cloud. Our open, standards-based devices enable “plug and play” access to the smart meter data stream – not only for utilities and end consumers, but also for third-parties, such as suppliers of home automation equipment, home energy management system makers, and providers of value-added cloud services. The company is based in Vancouver, BC. http://www.rainforestautomation.com