OAKLAND, CA - Lucid Design Group, Inc., an award-winning provider of real-time energy monitoring and display systems for buildings, today announced Building Dashboard® Network™, a new product which enables people to view, compare and share building energy and water use information on the web.
"We're launching a social network for the buildings in which we live and work," said Michael Murray, Lucid's chief executive officer. "Now buildings, companies and schools will feature their own profile pages with real-time energy and water use data. You can easily search for buildings, compare performance and set up energy reduction competitions across the Building Dashboard Network."
"When people have timely information on resource use – particularly in comparison to others – they make significant behavioral changes that reduce consumption and result in tangible financial savings and environmental benefit," Murray added.
Over the past six years, Lucid has installed its monitoring and display systems in hundreds of buildings across the U.S., including commercial sites and in residence halls and academic facilities at major universities. Resource use feedback and real-time energy use competitions have helped institutions reduce consumption by 5 to 20 percent on a long-term basis.
Lucid's simple, easy-to-understand interface provides real-time information on electricity, water and natural gas use, as well as the performance of renewable energy systems. Data are interpreted and displayed on graphs and animated gauges – showing kilowatt-hours, cost and carbon dioxide emissions – on the web or on touchscreen displays in buildings.
"Many years of ongoing research and expertise in the field have helped make Lucid Design Group a long-standing leader in the commercial market," said Murray. "With the introduction of Building Dashboard Network, we're making real-time resource use exciting and social for thousands more commercial and institutional buildings."
Building Dashboard Network is based on Lucid's pioneering Building Dashboard® product and includes exciting new apps and widgets, increased interactivity and open sharing of resource use data. Building Dashboard Network also integrates with Facebook and Twitter to post updates to personal profile pages and feeds.
New features include: Energy apps and widgets for making comparisons across end uses, buildings, communities and groups; nationwide energy competitions and community comparisons; real-time budget tracking; network-wide searching; streaming video; discussion feeds; targeted green tips and more. Green and LEED-certified buildings benefit from showcasing sustainable features and comparing performance to similar non-green buildings. Third-party applications like Google Maps are also integrated into Building Dashboard Network.
Building Dashboard Network will be used in the 2010 Campus Conservation Nationals, which pits more than 40 of the country's leading universities against one another in a nationwide energy reduction competition in November.
Lucid is also working with smart meter providers and utilities to make the technology available to residential customers. Several pilot projects are already underway.
This newest version of Building Dashboard is available for pre-order now and will be officially released to the public early this summer. Pricing will be provided on request. A product tour can be found on Lucid's website, www.luciddesigngroup.com.
Lucid Design Group, Inc. is a privately held cleantech software company, founded in 2004, and a pioneer in providing real-time information feedback to teach, inspire behavior change and save energy and water resources in buildings. Over the past six years, Lucid's team has endeavored to make resource use visible, accessible and engaging so that building occupants have the data visualization and communication tools to reduce and manage their consumption.
Today, tens of thousands of people live and work in schools, companies, community and commercial buildings and homes enhanced by Lucid's web-based Building Dashboard technology. Now in its fourth generation, the intuitive Building Dashboard user interface allows occupants to connect personal electricity, water and natural gas consumption with the actions and events that take place within buildings.
Source: Lucid Design Group