Echelon Corporation
Search Downloads How To Buy
 

Lawrence Berkeley Labs Uses Echelon Technology to Improve Air Quality in California Classrooms

Echelon supports education by improving learning environment and reducing energy costs for schools

(San Jose, CA– February 7, 2005) - Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON), the creator of the LonWorks® device networking platform for networking everyday devices to each other and the Internet, today announced that the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is using Echelon's technology to develop a prototype heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system to improve indoor air quality in California's 85,000 portable classrooms. Funded by the California Energy Commission (CEC), the project will result in technical specifications for a common HVAC system designed to reduce energy costs by 30% and lessen acoustical noise while improving overall indoor air quality.

"California is faced with the compounded problem of budget woes and an increasing need for classroom space that has resulted in a very high number of portable classrooms," said Michael Apte, PhD, Indoor Environment Department, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. "We're working with the CEC to develop HVAC equipment that saves energy and improves indoor air quality in portable classrooms by taking advantage of the latest building automation technologies to create better learning environments, save the state money, and provide higher quality education. Echelon's participation and the technology they created gives us a novel set of tools to monitor and assess the new system's performance, enabling us to achieve our goals."

California schools currently house nearly 2 million students in portable classrooms, and the number is rising due to increasing student enrollment numbers and state mandated reductions in class sizes. Many of these structures do not meet California building code requirements for minimum ventilation rates, and concerns over indoor environmental quality in schools have been raised by environmental health groups, government agencies, and school administrators as the reliance on portable classrooms increases.

These structures are typically under-ventilated as escalating energy costs force schools to reduce HVAC system usage and high levels of mechanical noise produced by the existing systems has prompted teachers to turn off the systems. Recent studies of indoor air quality in portable classrooms found elevated levels of carbon dioxide, airborne chemicals, allergens and pollutants, exacerbated by insufficient ventilation system usage.

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab is conducting a field study with products supplied by Echelon in which portable classrooms have been retrofitted to enable advanced HVAC monitoring and control functionality and direct Internet access to indoor environmental and energy usage conditions. The research team is able to remotely track vital data in real time, such as temperature, humidity, indoor carbon dioxide concentrations, air velocity, sound levels, and energy use, and they can compare this information to data from portable classrooms with conventional heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems.

"Poorly designed automation systems and declining state budgets are affecting the ability of our schools to provide adequate learning environments," said Anders Axelsson, Echelon's senior vice president of sales and marketing. "Implementing a cost effective LonWorks based control system allows schools to focus their precious budget dollars on improving education and the learning environment in the face of skyrocketing energy costs, benefiting students and school administrators alike."

School districts across the nation are using Echelon's market-leading technology to reduce facility management expenses through remote monitoring and control of HVAC and other building systems. The New York City School System is currently designing and installing a LonWorks based supervisory control and data acquisition system for all 1,200 schools in the five boroughs of New York City.

About Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and the Indoor Environment Department
Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been a leader in science and engineering technology for more than 65 years, serving as a powerful resource to meet national needs. As a multi-program Department of Energy laboratory, Berkeley Lab is dedicated to performing leading edge research in the biological, physical, materials, chemical, energy, environmental and computing sciences.

The Indoor Environment Department conducts a broad program of research and technology development and dissemination activities directed toward greatly reducing the energy used for thermally conditioning and distributing ventilation air in buildings and simultaneously improving indoor air quality (IAQ), thermal comfort and the health and productivity of building occupants.

About Echelon
Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) is the creator of the LonWorks platform, the world's most widely used standard for connecting everyday devices such as appliances, thermostats, air conditioners, electric meters, and lighting systems to each other and to the Internet. Echelon's hardware and software products enable manufacturers and integrators to create smart devices and systems that lower cost, increase convenience, improve service, and enhance productivity, quality, and safety. Thousands of companies have developed and installed LonWorks products and more than 40 million LonWorks devices have been installed in homes, buildings, factories, trains, and other systems worldwide.

Further information regarding Echelon can be found at http://www.echelon.com.

###

Echelon, LonWorks, and the Echelon logo are registered trademarks of Echelon Corporation registered in the United States and other countries. Other marks belong to their respective holders.

This press release may contain statements relating to future plans, events or performance. Such statements may involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with uncertainties pertaining to the timing and level of customer orders and demand for Echelon products and services, the growth of the LonWorks industry; risks associated with the successful completion of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's clean air project, extend to which LonWorks based products are included in the final specifications, and the adoption by the State of California of the final specifications; and other risks identified in Echelon's SEC filings. Actual results, events and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Echelon undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Contact Information

Press Contacts:

Steve Nguyen
Echelon Corporation
+1-408-938-5243
qnguyen@echelon.com

Abigail Johnson/Paul Michelson
Roeder-Johnson Corporation
(650) 802-1850
http://email.roeder-johnson.com

PDF version of this release