Looking like a glowing green eye atop each machine, the device senses when no one is around and slows things down. The display lights dim and the compressors slow, cranking up only occasionally to keep the product cold, but saving plenty of energy. Photo: Chase Squires
The soda vending machines at the University of Denver just got a little smarter.
For years, scores of those machines have stayed on, brightly lit and chugging away throughout the night, in dark hallways while the rest of the world was sleeping. Not exactly the most energy-efficient way of operating.
Over the past month, crews working with DU Energy Engineer Tom McGee have been busy installing a product called Vending Miser on machines across campus. Looking like a glowing green eye atop each machine, the device senses when no one is around and slows things down. The display lights dim and the compressors slow, cranking up only occasionally to keep the product cold, but saving plenty of energy.
McGee says so far about 60 of the devices have been installed, with a few more to go. When all the machines are fitted with the Vending Miser, McGee expects the combined energy savings to keep about 66 metric tons of carbon out of the atmosphere each year. That’s about 1 percent of DU’s annual output.
The $16,000 cost, split between University and student funds, should be recouped in energy savings in three to four years, he said.
The manufacturer, USA Technologies, reports some 300,000 Vending Misers have been installed nationwide.