Sustainability Projects

Automatic Meter Reading

The university has started the introduction of Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) technology to assist in accurate energy monitoring and also to highlight large areas of excessive electrical energy consumption.

As part of the Energy Conservation in Computer Intensive Environments (ECCILES) project there have been 4 AMR meters installed, sending real time information back to a centrally managed software package. This enables energy mapping and profiling to be used in reducing our carbon footprint and minimising wastage of electrical energy.

In addition to these meters we will shortly be bringing into the software an additional 17 AMR meters that were installed as part of the recent developments on T5, Wet Textile, Social Learning zone and Wet labs developments.

The university also employs a portable energy monitor device, the E-Tracker, to further narrow down power distribution and recognise smaller areas for improvement. This equipment allows for accurate profiling of individual circuits.

The ECCILES Project

The ECCILES project aims to find new solutions to the problems of power consumption and heat control in computer classrooms and server rooms using a systematic approach to innovation called TRIZ.

Focusing on one University site, the project will investigate, in depth, the contributing factors to the problem of energy usage associated with educational computing. From this analysis we aim to generate a set of viable solutions appropriate to the site. A second strand will investigate how to improve temperature management in computer rooms including classrooms, with the minimum energy increases. The project seeks to engage the whole site community in contributing to energy reduction.

For more information, visit the ECCILES Project web page|.