Research's IaaC - Intelligent Infrastructure for Energy Efficiency

In the US, roughly 40% of the total energy (and 70% of the electricity) is consumed by buildings, with the greatest demand being for heating, cooling, and lighting. Preliminary trials have found that as much as 30% of this can be recovered by intelligent building infrastructure so that, for example, air handlers are turned off when windows are open, illumination is adjusted in response to natual light, and energy is not expended heating and cooling unoccupied spaces. This makes intelligent infrastructure one of the most accessible opportunities for significantly reducing the environmental and economic impact of energy consumption, but the challenge is that the contribution lies in a \\"long green tail\\" of a large number of small savings. To date, the cost and complexity of the required systems has been prohibitive. This event will review the background and discuss planning for a proposed large-scale testbed, initially on MIT\\'s campus, to collaboratively develop, deploy and evaluate the impact of intelligent infrastructure for energy efficiency. This effort will span from enabling research to rapid-prototyping of solutions to scalable commercial implementations.

http://cba.mit.edu/events/07.05.energy/