Energy audit reveals waste of resources, energy

Running a university requires energy, and a lot of it. Air conditioning, lights, computers, printers, projectors, vending machines, phones, televisions. How much energy does it take to power our campus? A team of students, under the Green Initiative of the GC Sustainability Council, have asked that question.

Last year, an independent studies class with Dr. Hauke Busch, assistant professor of chemistry, physics and astronomy, conducted an energy audit on campus commissioned by the GC Sustainability Council to evaluate how much energy it takes to power the university. Sam Ovett, junior environmental science major; Emily Hill, senior physics major; Kristian Page, junior outdoor education and psychology major; and Katie Angell, junior psychology major, were all members of the team.

“We were looking not only for raw data and numbers, but also where we’re wasting energy,” Ovett said. “What we’re trying to do as a team is gather an idea of how much energy the school uses, then find out where the gaps are.”

“The main thrust is to conserve energy, and to put into perspective what we are using as citizens,” Busch said.

The energy audit team calculated the amount of energy used to light an average classroom in Arts & Sciences by counting the number of light bulbs, checking the wattage, determining how long the lights were turned on and then multiplying. They also evaluated the entire building, including hallways, bathrooms, stairwells and closets. The results were powerful, according to the team.

The energy audit found that the building uses 265,000 kilowatt hours per week, which translates to over $18,500 per week, creating 166 tons of carbon dioxide emissions — an estimation based on the team’s research.

“This year we’re continuing the energy audit with University Housing, on top of finding ways to solve the energy problems that we found last year,” Ovett said. “We did the audit, now we’re trying to get things changed.”

“Since auditing one room of each sex only gives us a rough example, we are in the process of surveying 40 students (20 male, 20 female) living in the dorms on their typical amount of energy use,” Angell said.

According to Doug Oetter, chair of the Sustainability Council and associate professor of history, geography and philosophy, energy meters will be installed on a building-by-building basis this year, something that had not been done in the past. Previously, energy came to one central location on campus, then split up.

“We want people to be more aware of the energy they use, we want to identify energy waste and communicate that back to the facilities so that we can help eliminate waste,” Oetter said.

According to Ovett, they are also looking into solar panels. “We’re get

ting in touch with a solar panel company and we’re going to set up a date for them to come and do an evaluation of what they would think is feasible, to find some base numbers and take it from there,” Ovett said.

The energy audit team looks to automated lighting as a future goal, particularly in bathrooms and offices on campus.

“I’m pretty excited about automated lighting in offices and bathrooms, because as exciting as the solar panels are, we would put more of a dent in reducing usage with automated lighting than with alternative power,” Ovett said. “If we can make it as automatic as possible, so people don’t have to think about it, that will have the most impact.”

He says the first and most important step is to reduce energy consumption, then look for alternative energy sources.

Angell agrees, saying that automatic lighting would be an effective method to cut energy costs, ensuring that lights are only on when an area is in use.

“I think the key thing is that we recognize that our institution has a big role in this. We’re a major consumer while also promoting ideas for growth. All these professors and students are working on solutions. We’ve become a testing ground for solutions for clean energy. We want to be able to minimize our impact while promoting local economic development. The energy efficiency that we’ve been implementing is really dynamic,” Oetter said.

“We’ve been throwing around the term ‘live consciously,’ kind of our buzz term. Think about what you use, understand that your energy doesn’t come from your light switch. It isn’t just a dollar,” Ovett said.

Posted by Caitlin Renn on Sep 1 2011. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.