[johnohara]

In one building garage, exhaust fans had been mistakenly left on for a year (to the tune of $66,000 of wasted energy). Within moments of coming online, the smart buildings solution sniffed out this fault and the problem was corrected.

And also why this work is important. Environmental and conservation arguments aside, it means $66,000 worth of product and services had to be sold to pay for one simple mistake.

In large organizations, these types of mistakes occur every day and can add up quickly.

The article was light on specifics, and the ROC control room doesn't seem to bespeak a 500 acre campus, but actively pursuing the problem looks very interesting.

[salvadors]

It means that a lot more than $66,000 worth of product and services had to be sold to pay for one simple mistake.

Even Microsoft don't have 100% gross margin.

[spydum]

what they don't mention, is how much it cost to build and support this massive sensor infrastructure and analytics. I would wager $66k/year is a drop in the bucket.

[dhugiaskmak]

Well, they saved quite a lot by not paying the billion and a half dollars that they owe Washington state in taxes, so they can afford it.

[jacques_chester]

From the article it seems that they took whatever they had and tied into a single sensor network mesh, possibly adding some new sensors along the way. So a lot of the cost is fully depreciated already.