Feb. 27, 2018
Vytau Virskus (BS MECH EGR ’75) played a key role in developing the first computerized energy management system at MSU in 1976; 42 years later, after millions of dollars in energy costs saved, his Michigan-based energy management consulting business is still going strong. And—it all began at Michigan State University.
He was recently awarded a patent for a mathematical algorithm called E~flow, that uses building energy demand as the primary control variable to slow down or speed up a hydronic pump through a variable speed control thereby increasing or decreasing volume flow.
This patent is the culmination of work that began while he was a mechanical engineering student at MSU and later an employee of the MSU Physical Plant, where he installed the first computer management application for the campus energy systems.
“I was working at the MSU physical plant. We wanted to improve building efficiency on campus, but we had no way to measure how much heat was being used in any given building, which means we had no way to determine which buildings efficient and which weren’t. The year was 1974—just after the spiking energy and gasoline prices caused by the Arab (OPEC) oil embargo. This was the birth of the modern energy efficiency movement and the catalyst for my career-long effort to develop E~flow,” Virskus recalled.
Read more on E~flow: https://www.newswire.com/news/vytautas-virskus-of-millenium-energy-company-awarded-patent-for-20186215
Story in the MSU State News: http://statenews.com/article/2018/02/patent-e-flow
