Alignment

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Industrial energy consumption is an intensive use of the country’s energy resources—and currently about two-thirds of the energy put into the U.S. manufacturing sector is wasted.

To make our buildings smarter, we need to know what kind and amount of energy is being consumed over time, in terms of heating and cooling systems and lighting, in relation to temperature and humidity. Historically, building control has been based on a rigid time schedule—turning on heating or cooling at a specific time based on the date. Overnight conditions shut down or are reduced to conserve energy, before the process begins again tomorrow. Yet all space is not utilized 100 percent of the time. If we can shift our control from time-based to event-based, we could drastically save energy from lighting, heating and cooling vacant spaces. Tracking motion and occupancy can allow you to deliver needed temperature, humidity control and lighting for each space exactly when it is needed. To implement, we need sensing, actuation and smart embedded controls that can account for heating and cooling time, heat loss and more. 

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering’s faculty members bring together important strengths in sensing, embedded controls, thermal and fluid transfers, fluid mechanics and heat transfer, plus the integration of big data analytics, IoT and machine learning, to tackle the challenges of smart, energy-efficient buildings and systems. We’re conducting energy audits and assessing the operating patterns of industrial activities in order to optimize operations to achieve the best energy efficiency from a systems perspective. We’re also developing energy-efficient technologies and products to support industrial efforts to not only reduce the cost of operations but also the impact on the environment.