Simple suggestions to save energy

     Even college students living in dorms, apartments and housing can drastically help the environment. Simple steps can be taken to conserve energy in living spaces, creating less waste.
     However, these ideas can be confronted with some hostility.
One suggestion from the U.S. Department of Energy is to incorporate daylighting, or “the use of windows and skylights to bring sunlight into your home.”
     “I mean, I could, but I’d just rather use a lamp,” freshman Beau Washburn said.
     College students everywhere are a great audience for ideas for conserving energy. Because most are still getting used to being out on their own, they are blank canvases for receiving new information. However, many are still used to their old ways of doing things.
     “I think that everybody has a small impact on it, but I don’t think that I am going to make an impact on the environment or anything,” freshman Alecia Vinson said. “I cut the lights off. I turn the TV off. Stuff like that. Nothing drastic.”
     The attitude for older students who no longer live in the dorms is a bit different.
     “In the dorm I didn’t care because you didn’t have to pay. We kept our room really cold and took, like, three showers a day. We don’t like to be blown away with the power bill,” sophomore nursing major Brittany Maddox said.
     Another way to conserve energy is by using air conditioning correctly.
     “Air conditioners use about 5 percent of all of the electricity produced in the United States,” says the U.S. Department of Energy. “As a result, roughly 100 million tons of carbon dioxide are released into the air each year—an average of about two tons for each home with an air conditioner.”
     However, GCSU students seem to be thinking of the summer heat when asked what they tend to do with their air conditioning and heating units.
     “I don’t think people conserve their heat and air because of the type of weather we’ve been having,” Miles said.
     Austin Energy also states that keeping your thermostat at 78 in the summer and 68 in the winter helps.
     Each degree cooler or warmer will increase your energy use by 6 to 8 percent. For instance, setting your thermostat at 72 in the summer could increase energy use by up to 40 percent.
     Students can also use compact fluorescent lamps to lower lighting bills, according to the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, as well as fix dripping faucets.
     A single dripping hot water faucet can waste 212 gallons of water a month. That not only increases water bills, but also increases the gas or electric bill for heating the water.
     PG&E also suggests washing only full loads in dishwashers and using the shortest cycle possible. Instead of using the drying cycle, the company suggests letting the dishes dry naturally and allowing refrigerators and freezers to defrost is important as well, says the company.
     While these tips are easy to start and maintain, students continue to act on their habits.
     “I should make a change but doing it the way I am is not promoting energy efficiency,” Miles said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 5 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry