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.
