eGauge Installation
Real-time energy monitors can be the difference between “light switches turn off the lights” to “light switches turn off the lights which impacts the electricity our building uses.” This level of understanding leads to richer discussion and greater learning for students, which is why we require real-time energy monitors in our higher level competitions.
Resource Central believes that real-time energy monitors are incredibly valuable to aiding energy education. That’s why we’ve partnered with eGauge and Bolder Energy Engineers to make it possible for every school to get an eGauge installed.
What does eGauge data look like?
Energy Consumption
The above image shows a buildings energy consumption by illustrating both power used and the volume (kWh) of energy that is coming from the grid. This dashboard is interactive meaning you can toggle through different views. What’s more, depending on how your eGauge is installed, you can set your buildings device to report on specific energy consumption. For example, in the image above, the dotted red line is reporting HVAC specific energy consumption.
Energy Production
Here is an example of a school that has solar panels producing energy and tied into their eGauge device. In this example, the green line shows the power their solar panels are producing, and because their panels are producing more than their building is using, the green shaded area is showing energy that is being sent back to the grid. Notice the time stamp on the bottom of the chart. You can clearly see when sunset occurred and subsequent solar production stopped until the next morning when the sun came up.
Energy Summary
All eGauge dashboards provide simple summaries to illustrate the Net energy consumption of a building, and the corresponding financial impact to the school/building. These summaries can be manipulated to allow students to dig into specific days, hours, weeks, months or years to really understand the big picture of energy consumption in their environment. The value in this summary is providing students a quick look at what the energy consumption in their school/building is financially costing – tying energy to dollars.
Is an eGauge required to participate in Renew Our Schools?
No, you do not need to have an eGauge to participate in Renew Our Schools Spark level of competition. If you want to advance to our higher level competitions (Star or Super Nova), and higher level learning, you will need to get an eGauge installed.
Installation Process – what to expect
After you order your eGauge, our team will reach out to you via email to confirm your order. The first step to a successful install is assessing your building so we can be sure the eGauge is programmed to meet your buildings needs. We have a few forms that you can share with the appropriate contacts at your school/district to complete. Once they are completed, we will program the eGauge and ship the necessary hardware to your school for your selected electrician to install.
Your electrician and our energy engineer will have a pre-installation on-site virtual visit to identify the installation point in your building, and what hardware will be required. This way, on installation day, everyone is prepared for what to expect. After your electrician installs the eGauge, they will be asked to call our energy engineer who will verify at that time that the eGauge is working as expected. Our goal is for your electrician to install the eGauge and troubleshoot any issues immediately.
After a successful installation, our team will alert you that your eGauge is up and running as expected. We will also share the link to your eGauge dashboard with you. You’ll be able to add your eGauge link to your School Profile in the Renew Our Schools portal. You may also share this link with anyone else at your school or district who might want to see the valuable data it provides. After a successful install, you get to keep and access the eGauge for the life of the device!
Ordering Details
Use the form below to order your eGauge set-up. The set-up fee is $2,000 per school. This fee includes your eGauge, necessary hardware to install the device, our management and coordination of the installation, and installation validation with our energy engineer. We provide $350 towards the cost of an electrician in the form of a free entry into your first Star competition post installation.
*You do not need to order a new eGauge every year that you participate. Once installed, the eGauge is yours to keep for the life of the device.
