Communications of the ACM
Nrel Releases Free, Open-Source Energy Analysis Tool
The open source DataBus app tracks and analyzes energy usage in buildings.
Credit: Marjorie Schott/NREL
The U.S. Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) issued Energy DataBus, an open source app for tracking, storing, and analyzing energy-related data for optimizing energy use and spotting leaks.
The app uses a parallel-processing database that enables management of huge data volumes generated by energy sensors running round the clock in buildings.
NREL architect Dean Hiller says DataBus utilizes Apache's Cassandra database, which permits collection of massive amounts of data through the addition of more data nodes. "We can be doing 100,000 events per second or a million events per second," he notes. "All that is required is that we add more computers."
Project leader Keith Searight cites numerous benefits of open source, including its free availability, ease of use, low barrier to entry, and the ability to exploit value derived from people in your community.
The DataBus team's reliance on the open source PlayORM program for integrating data from different sources was critical as well, as the app gets data from multiple sources such as power meters, thermometers, carbon-dioxide sensors, air-conditioning gear, and meteorological sensors.
Searight observes that DataBus can calibrate data points and assign them a common time stamp so analysts can plot graphs or view averages or totals.
From Government Computer News
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