Today, we often aren’t empowered to make a personal contribution to reducing our workplace energy use beyond minor behavioural changes like switching off our PCs and monitors at the end of the work day. In fact, personal energy use (through the plug), can amount to up to 50% of the overall building energy consumption. Tomorrow’s workplaces must be fundamentally different: being aware of, and acting to reduce, energy consumption will form part of how we consider our contribution at work productive.
So, what can businesses do to help people reduce the amount of energy they use and increase access to renewable sources? The first step in overcoming the energy challenge is to affect positive behavioural change. Critically, the foundations of these endeavours lay in computing intelligence.
The newly built Bouygues office complex in France is a great example of how technology can empower people to positively affect their energy use in the workplace. Intel established a development lab in the complex to better understand how sensing and control hardware could be combined with monitoring and management software to reduce energy use. The project led to the development of Intel’s Personal Office Energy Monitor (POEM) management system, which allows employees to monitor in real time the energy consumed by their PC, printer, heating and lighting. The system means that workers can instantly view and manage their energy use from their laptop or workstation PC and makes them more able to reduce energy consumption for their department, floor, or building.
Projects like Bouygues are an insight into the future of the workplace because individuals can observe and measure the impact that their day-to-day decisions have on energy consumption. In essence, Intel’s POEM system makes energy management personal.
If computer intelligence can help infuse positive behavioural changes in the workplace, it needn’t stop there. What if a home energy management system gave us visibility of our energy usage and helped us manage our consumption with “set and forget” convenience? Smart applications can provide homeowners with real-time data and real-time costs of how much energy is being consumed by each individual household appliance. For example, people will be able to calculate how much energy and money they can save by turning off the television as opposed to leaving it on standby for one evening. Ultimately, leading to reduced energy costs and consumption.
Once energy is personal and we’re empowered to know instantly and exactly how much each of our devices are using through management hardware and software, we will be able to better control our broader work or home environments, while ensuring privacy at the same time.
To learn more about our work with solving environmental issues with technology, please visit:
Yves Aillerie, Intel France