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Building Dashboard® discussed on NPR's 'All Tech Considered'
October 13, 2009
Washington, D.C. - Host Michele Norris talks with technology culture reporter Omar Gallaga on 'All Tech Considered' about Lucid Design Group's Building Dashboard®, currently found in university and municipal buildings, and someday to become a feature in your own home.
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DAVID GURA: I'm standing on the National Mall just to the east of the Washington monument, the Capitol building is to my left and in front of me is a small neighborhood: 20 homes, each of which is really, really energy efficient.
Mr. KYLE BELCHER: So, this is the Refract House.
GURA: Kyle Belcher is standing outside one of the houses, greeting visitors.
Mr. BELCHER: This home provides about a 150 percent of its peak energy needs. So, on a day like today, we're producing a net surplus of energy and giving energy back into the power grid.
GURA: It's a warm, fall morning and the sun is shining. Refract House is tube shaped. It pivots around a beautiful deck made out of reclaimed elm wood, the roof is filled with solar panels. It's insulation is made out of recycled denim and every appliance and light fixture is connected to a software program called the Building Dashboard.
Mr. NOAH GREER(ph) (Student, California College of the Arts): From anywhere in the world, when you're on vacation in Hawaii, you can log in online and see how your house is doing in terms to energy usage, energy production, even water usage.
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MICHELE NORRIS, host: Sounds pretty cool. Well, let's find out a bit more about how all that technology works. And for that and more, I'm joined as we are most Monday's by Omar Gallaga. He covers technology culture for the Austin American-Statesman in Texas. Hello Omar, good to talk to you
Mr. OMAR GALLAGA (Reporter, Austin American-Statesman): Hi, Michele. Thanks for having me.
NORRIS: Now, David just mentioned something called the Building Dashboard. Tell me a little bit more about the software and how close we might be to seeing something like this next door?
Mr. GALLAGA: Well, that's made by a company called Lucid Design Group and it's primarily designed for universities and municipal buildings. It's not really - they're just now starting to kind of integrate that into homes and into pilot projects. But it is - it's real time energy consumption information put into really colorful charts. You can see kilowatt hours converted into pounds of carbon dioxide, if you want to see your carbon footprint in the home. What's happening is we were starting to see some of that kind of technology integrate into home systems and not just new homes, also existing homes.
About Lucid Design Group
Lucid Design Group is a privately held cleantech software company, founded in 2004, and a pioneer in providing real-time information feedback to teach, inspire change and save resources. Over the past five years, our team has endeavored to make resource use visible, accessible and engaging so that building occupants have the tools to reduce and manage their consumption.
Today, tens of thousands of people live and work in schools, companies, community and commercial centers and homes enhanced by Lucid's web-based Building Dashboard® technology. Now in its third generation, the intuitive Building Dashboard® user interface allows you to connect personal electricity, water and natural gas consumption with the actions and events that take place within buildings.
