A kilowatt saved is a kilowatt earned

Michael Murray, president of Oakland-based Lucid Design Group, could be considered the Richard Simmons of energy conservation. A green building consultant and software guru, he’s built a business out of helping people shed kilowatts. The Building Dashboard, Lucid Design Group’s flagship product, shows building occupants how much energy they are collectively using and, in buildings with renewable energy systems, how much energy the building is producing.

The Dashboard combines data from any devices including electric meters, water meters, solar panels, geothermal systems and living machines, and translates it into a unique Web site that shows in real time how a building is performing. Demand for the Building Dashboard has increased tenfold in the past year, according to Murray.

The self-financed start-up with offices in Oakland, Atlanta and Cleveland has created Building Dashboards for nearly a dozen schools, and has partnered with home builders such as Santa Monica, Calif.-based LivingHomes [see “LivingHomes takes prefab to next level,” SIJ, Oct. 2006]. “We do not want to compete with tools that are already out there for facility managers,” Murray says. “We’d rather focus on the average person.”

Murray notes a study conducted at Oberlin College showed that dorms equipped with Building Dashboards achieved 50 percent energy savings over those without. Projects that incorporate a Building Dashboard can earn up to one-and-a-half credits in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system, by earning points in the innovation and design category and the merits and verification category.