As utility customers go, Northern Arizona University is complicated.
The dozens of buildings serve thousands of students, faculty and staff in a variety of ways—there are places to work, study, live, do experiments, play, eat and more. The campus is filled with people from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but activity doesn’t end with a traditional workday. Even the work done on campus varies among buildings—some house office workers on computers, others have artists with kilns or engineers building machines, still others have dozens of freezers and heaters to properly store, test and destroy materials used for scientific research.
Knowing this, you might think a leaky air conditioner or less efficient lightbulbs would go unnoticed in the electric bill. But they don’t, thanks to a multi-faceted research consortium that provides hands-on analytical experience to engineering, sustainability and informatics students and workable, money-saving solutions to the Office of Sustainability and Facility Services.