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 (  Facebook message to girls in dorm  2.8% to 1.3%  26 to 24 Kilowatts of energy  10 th to 7 th  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