Prof. Steven B Leeb

Professor Leeb Is proposing a new, economically attractive, approach to waste heat recovery and operating schedule optimization: A centralized monitor, easily installed, serving loads with decentralized control configured to permit centralized collection of waste heat. Every electrical load in this vision becomes a "dual-use" or "co-generating" electrical appliance, performing its primary function as efficiently as possible, while offering secondary heat generation in a centralized, efficient building plant.
 
He is demonstrating the “no watt left behind” approach with a three-pronged research attack, leading to technology demonstrations of: 
 
(1) Intelligent Lighting capable of detecting the presence of occupants and of performing local control of light output to optimize energy consumption. 
(2) Intelligent Power Electronics that can be operate conventional loads like discharge lighting from a central location, where waste heat is easily recovered. 
(3) Intelligent Metering capable of making dual-use of the power system wiring, both for conventional power distribution and also for load and operating schedule monitoring.