Open Data Matters to Serious Buildings

Across the board, open data is fueling important discussions about access to information in a post web 2.0 world and what we can do with such data when we have it. Simply put, open data matters because it significantly improves the overall quality and quantity of information, which fuels innovation and collaboration, and accelerates the rate of improvement.

But what does all of this openness have to do with buildings and energy management technologies? Well, a lot, actually. This is how the Open Energy Information website explains it: “According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, homes and commercial buildings use nearly three quarters of the electricity in the United States. Opportunities abound for reducing the huge amount of energy consumed by buildings, but discovering those opportunities requires compiling substantial amounts of data and information.”

The problem is 2-fold: there is too little data available (open building data lags far behind other open data, such as for transportation); and there are no standards for compiling this data.

Buildings are a tremendous source of energy consumption and energy waste, and therefore have tremendous impact on the environment and on our economy. Yet, everything in our buildings that demands and supplies energy can be metered and monitored today. Such metering results in vast amounts of data that we can analyze and make useful with smart algorithms and easy visualization, which give both granular and comprehensive context to make this data useful.

What we need are standards and initiatives that require commercial building data to be open, transparent, and visible – to those who operate the building and those who use the building. When a building’s systems are integrated and harnessed in a standardized way (as they are with a building energy operations platform like SeriousEnergy Manager) this wealth of data can be a substantial source of information that can lead to, when acted upon, reduced operating and energy costs and more comfortable and productive environments – so that our buildings are more valuable to their owners and occupants. And this is a win-win for everyone.