Fort Lauderdales' Heat Map Tool to Visualize Energy Usage Data

Overview

The City of Fort Lauderdale developed a no-cost, replicable heat map tool to visualize hourly energy usage data for city facilities. The heat maps provide greater visibility into electricity usage within city-owned buildings. By regularly monitoring electricity use, the city can identify energy and operational efficiency opportunities more effectively and evaluate the impacts of efficiency measures within its buildings.

Details

You can create a similar heat map for your own facilities by following the detailed instructions provided by Fort Lauderdale. Check out How to Create a Heat Map for Energy Usage in the Related Tools below for step-by-step instructions.

This free tool lets the City of Fort Lauderdale visually identify energy use patterns and opportunities for upgrades and system scheduling changes and improvements. The city adds weather data to the tool to help understand how environmental conditions impact building performance on a specific day (including temperature and precipitation, as a proxy for cloud cover).

Results

The City of Fort Lauderdale used the heat maps to identify potential problems at individual sites and to support the funding of programmable thermostats and lighting upgrades at various buildings within its portfolio. The heat maps have proven to be an effective tool to increase the awareness and understanding of energy management and efficiency opportunities in Fort Lauderdale. For example, city staff have used the heat maps to engage department leadership, including the city’s budget office, to help make the case for continued investment in energy efficiency. Take a closer look at the sample heat map to see how Fort Lauderdale deployed the tool to show impacts of energy efficiency improvements made in a specific building. Consider using this tool to identify energy and operational efficiency opportunities and evaluate the impacts of efficiency measures for your organization.