Keeping An Eye On Energy Wastage At De Montfort University

Endangered species are helping De Montfort University (DMU) in Leicester to monitor its energy consumption via a new app available on iTunes. The Greenview app is the result of a unique collaboration between DMU’s Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development (IESD), Institute of Creative Technology (IOCT) and Estates. It allows anyone who downloads it to see the electrical consumption of five of DMU's buildings in real time, and in a fun and different way.

Dr Richard Bull of the IESD explained: “As a team we wanted to move away from linear, quantitative and frankly dull monitoring. One of our team had the idea to imagine that endangered species inhabit our buildings and that their well-being is dependent on our energy consumption.

“We came up with three states of animation for the buildings/animals - happy, normal and sad. The animations are based on the actual half-hourly meter readings that every DMU building has - so what you are seeing is actual consumption figures, represented by the moods of our animals.” Greenview was formed as a result of three research projects funded by JISC’s Greening ICT programme and funding allowed the animation of five buildings initially, but Dr Bull and his team now hope to extend the app to cover the whole DMU campus.

“We are trying to start a conversation and raise awareness of the problem of energy in the built environment” added Dr Bull. “A third of the energy consumed in buildings is simply wasted on lights and PCs left on. We hope this fun little app may just help you think a bit more about connection to the natural environment, to the fact that the energy we consumed is a result of the burning of non-renewable resources”.

Original source here.