Eco experiment pays off - bizjournals:

hegenefipa.blogspot.com
Working with , the students deviseed a system that tracks powerf usage and issues monthly reports on the cost of producing water atthe department’d 19 plants. The department, whichb oversees the county’s water, wastewater and reuse services, previously had no way of monitoriny power usage or operational much less collecting data toimprove efficiency. Identifyinbg those inefficient production operations enables the county to targetg which plants should be saidRobert Dehler, a program manager in the watef and sewage division and the sponsoe of the group’s project.
Senior design teams from UCF have been working with Seminolre County for the past four years and will continue work on the project another year, Dehler said. The next group will tackle wastewaterfsystem operations, he said. Conservation gains in the university’s $6 million-a-year shuttle system is the goal of two othere UCF student projects that were showcasedr in the symposium for renewable and sustainable energy sponsoredcby . Students designed a system that woulrd collect data about shuttle ridership to determine what adjustmentds need to be made to improve efficiencyg inthe system.
Instead of bus drivers manuallytallying riders, the student system would install a device that would count riderse entering and exiting the shuttles. Installinhg the system would costabout $10,000 to equip 25 students said. However, if the data collectee is used to eliminate justone bus, the school coulcd save $240,000 a year, studentse said in their presentation. A seconr shuttle project proposed toinstalkl real-time Global Positioning Systemm that tracks the shuttles, whicbh is intended to increase ridership by increasinb convenience of catching a shuttle. UCF has no plansz to introduce either of the systems on itsshuttlr fleet, according to a UCF spokesman.
Other studentf projects included hybridgolf carts, biodiesel conversion projects (including one version made usingg coconut oil), a green buildingh design and a wave power generation