Know Your Impacts:Energy Conservation in Dorm Life

By: Ashley Magnuson, Alyson McGonigle, Kelly Kurz, Jack Winkler, Leonard Hsu, and Lily Simek

Why is Energy Conservation important on a College Campus?

In 2010 we have already used 3,372,440 kilowatt-hours of energy across all the dorms on campus

“If you want to go quickly go alone, if you want to go far go together” (African Proverb)

We need to go far quickly Students can collaborate with one

another and spread new ideas

Case Studies Dennis Hall : 95 Occupants

23,415 square ft. Saved a total of 285 kilowatt hours of energy Reduced energy 3.6%(during the 3 week energy conservation competition)

Moore Hall :161 Occupants 37,882 square ft. Increased energy consumption by a total of 145

kilowatts Increased energy by 1.3%

Ways to Conserve Energy:

Fluorescent light bulbs Adjusting thermostats Taking shorter showers Doing laundry on cold water settings Turning lights off when leave a room Unplug electrical items when not in use Power strips

Plug everything in and turn off when not in use Eliminate vampire energy

Moore Hall Learn about sustainability Monitor Dashboard/the competition (

www.buildingdashboard.net/Richmond) Facebook message to girls in dorm 2.8% to 1.3% 26 to 24 Kilowatts of energy 10th to 7th

Increased knowledge=increased participation + better results (more energy conserved)

Energy Star Appliances Definition In 2009 alone American’s saved nearly

seventeen billion dollars on their utility bills by switching to Energy Star products

By making the switch from a non-certified refrigerator to a labeled “Energy Star” refrigerator, one can save up to fifteen percent more money in energy costs

Appliances in Moore Hall 20 girls were surveyed and were asked the following questions :

a. Do you have an individual refrigerator in your dorm room?

b. Is it “Energy Star” certified? c. Did you rent it from the program that works with school

and sends out flyers prior to students’ arrival on campus

Results 56% are certified “Energy Star” appliances 60% were rented from a company that works with school. by promoting the rental from school, the chances of a student

having a “Energy Star” certified refrigerator in their room and therefore being more energy efficient as a whole are higher

Laundry Research

Moore How the laundry facilities are used currently How more laundry affects the environment/

energy conservation Marsh

How the laundry facilities are used currently How more laundry affects the environment/

energy conservation

Alternative options:

Drying rack Water efficient washers Different sized washers/dryers

Recommendation Moore Marsh

Laptops Leaving laptops on and not using

efficient power settings wastes energy Many UR students power down their

laptops only a few times a week. Some leave laptops on for days, rarely

dim their laptops during use or personalize their power settings

Laptop Consumption A 150-watt laptop uses 1,314 kilowatt-

hours of electricity a year if left on continuously.

Energy equivalency of use is more than 1,000 pounds of coal or 100 gallons of oil.

Energy Star approved laptops save more than $75 million in energy costs

Save 700 million kWh of electricity Prevent 1 billion pounds of greenhouse

gases Savings are equivalent to emissions

from 90,000 cars

TV’s Energy Star 3.0 (2008)

Mandated testing Energy Star 4.0 (2010)

40% less power Energy Star 5.0

65% less power

What effects energy efficiency in a TV: Screen Size

52-inch screen vs 32-inch screen Efficiency for going down in screen size Technology Type

Plasma TV vs LCD TV 2-3 times more electricity to produce LCD

images Panasonic claims improvement of 30% yearly Picture Brightness

Brighter picture = more final

What is Lighting Efficiency?: Lighting = artificial supply of light Efficiency = effective operation

Dennis Hall 487 pounds of CO2 and 30 dollars a day 183,471 pounds of CO2, $9,000 this year.

Leading Colleges Green Mountain College –

Replaced 2,000 light fixtures and 1,400 light bulbs

Prevent 400,000 pounds of CO2

UC Santa Barbara- Institute for Energy Efficiency 150 lumen/watt LED white light source

Student Control versus Administration Control In dorm rooms many students control

what they buy or how they consume energy

Over the campus as a whole the administration plays a large role It is important that more sustainable

options are provided