Central Square Bike Audit

Bike Lane and Parking Audit

Today the Team ventured into the depths of Central Square to observe a number of aspects of the Square’s bicycle usage and accommodations. Three separate groups went out, all making different observations and collecting different data. The first group collected data on the number of bike racks being used, the number of unoccupied bike racks, and the number of bikes locked to objects other than bike racks (like street poles, subway fences, etc.). This group also took pictures of their findings. The second group observed bike traffic in the Square, looking at the number of bikers on the road (in bike lanes) and on the sidewalk. This group also made note of the number of times bike lanes were blocked, and by who. The final group talked to several local business owners about their views on the availability of bike racks, the number of customers that come on bikes, and other bike-related information.

 

Frisoli Center Audit

Frisoli Audit

On Thursday, we went to the frisoli center in east Cambridge to see how efficient their building is. the majority of the buildings light were florescent, but as we wondered through the building we noticed that many unoccupied rooms had their lights an air conditioning on. also, many rooms and areas such as the gym (which was also unoccupied) didn’t need any lighting at all. a few areas such as the lobby had big windows to let in sun light yet all their light were on. the frisoli center could save a lot of energy and money by simply turning a few things off. when we were done with our audit, we started to play knock out.

 

Area 4 Energy Audit, etc.

Temperature Gun

On tuesday, we started out the day by reassessing our goals for the project. We decided to focus our efforts/proposal on improvements to the Area 4 and Frisoli Youth Centers in Cambridge, rather than CRLS. Without access to CRLS, it would have been difficult to assess the current situation and attempt to create a specific, detailed proposal for improving the building. The second half of the day was spent at the Area 4 Youth Center, where we learned to do an energy audit, or basic assessment of the energy being used at the building. Tim Boughner, Supervisor of Building Systems for the Cambridge Department of Public Works, led us through the building, teaching us what to make not of while doing an audit. We looked mainly at lighting, heating/cooling systems, and appliances during the audit. The suggestions for saving energy that we came up with after completing the audit were:

-Installing motion detectors or occupancy sensors in rooms to prevent lights from being on when rooms were not being used (most of the unoccupied rooms that we looked at had lights on)

-Obtaining programmable thermostats to prevent excessive energy use on heating and cooling when rooms were not in use

After completing the Area 4 audit, we proceeded to go over the data we collected, and created a model for organizing our future energy audits.