Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Marist update through February 18th
Marist students, faculty, and staff have posted a 16.0% reduction in energy consumption through the first 18 days of February. It's estimated that the school has saved over $2500 in energy costs so far. Congratulations and keep up the good work!
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Green Cup Challenge Update
Halfway through the month, the Green Cup Challenge has been a resounding success at Westminster. Through the first 14 days of February, Westminster's energy consumption was down 17.3% from last February. This reduction has brought down the school's energy bill by about $4000 in just two weeks!! Thanks to all who have been participating, and let's keep this up for the rest of the month and beyond!
Saturday, February 16, 2008
11 Surprising Ways that Your Building Wastes Energy
This article from building.com shows 11 Surprising Ways that Your Building Wastes Energy.
There are some particularly good hints here. From our own experiences, the first point about powering down computers at the end of each day has been big. With that step alone, we have sometimes realized as much as a 20-25% reduction in our weekend electricity consumption on Sundays when no teachers are around. WARNING: Many people in the habit of walking out of their rooms at the end of the day oblivious to any electronics still powered up are notoriously difficult to reorient. While most faculty have immediately changed their habits, a persistent few continue to leave several items powered up at the end of every day. Bad habits are hard to break.
There are some particularly good hints here. From our own experiences, the first point about powering down computers at the end of each day has been big. With that step alone, we have sometimes realized as much as a 20-25% reduction in our weekend electricity consumption on Sundays when no teachers are around. WARNING: Many people in the habit of walking out of their rooms at the end of the day oblivious to any electronics still powered up are notoriously difficult to reorient. While most faculty have immediately changed their habits, a persistent few continue to leave several items powered up at the end of every day. Bad habits are hard to break.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Fact of the Week!!
1/28
Every minute the U.S. spends around 1 million dollars JUST on energy.
A quarter of a family's energy costs go to heat and AC. Turning the thermostat to a more reasonable temperature can save huge energy costs.
2/4
Fun Fact of the Week!! According to Powerhosuekids.com, "A hot water faucet that leaks one drop per second can add up to a 165 gallons a month. That's more than one person uses in two weeks!!" Make sure you fully turn off all faucets! Thanks for all your effort and keep working hard to conserve energy! :)
2/11
According to American Almanac, "Though accounting for only 5 percent of the world's population, Americans consume 26 percent of the world's energy". Think of how much energy we can save by just turning off our computer screens. Thanks for the effort and keep up the good work in the Green Cup Challenge!
Every minute the U.S. spends around 1 million dollars JUST on energy.
A quarter of a family's energy costs go to heat and AC. Turning the thermostat to a more reasonable temperature can save huge energy costs.
2/4
Fun Fact of the Week!! According to Powerhosuekids.com, "A hot water faucet that leaks one drop per second can add up to a 165 gallons a month. That's more than one person uses in two weeks!!" Make sure you fully turn off all faucets! Thanks for all your effort and keep working hard to conserve energy! :)
2/11
According to American Almanac, "Though accounting for only 5 percent of the world's population, Americans consume 26 percent of the world's energy". Think of how much energy we can save by just turning off our computer screens. Thanks for the effort and keep up the good work in the Green Cup Challenge!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Environmental Sustainability Resources for Your School
This was lifted directly from the NAIS February 2008 E-bulletin:
Check out NAIS's free online resources on environmental sustainability:
How to Build and Run a Successful Recycling Program
How to Implement a Campus Biodiesel Program
How to Build and Run a Sustainable Dining Program
Making the Environmental Sustainability Case to Your Board of Trustees and Administration
Making the Environmental Sustainability Case to Your Facilities and Dining Service Staff
Making the Environmental Sustainability Case to Your Faculty
These are just a few recent examples of many free environmental sustainability resources available on the NAIS website.
Check out NAIS's free online resources on environmental sustainability:
How to Build and Run a Successful Recycling Program
How to Implement a Campus Biodiesel Program
How to Build and Run a Sustainable Dining Program
Making the Environmental Sustainability Case to Your Board of Trustees and Administration
Making the Environmental Sustainability Case to Your Facilities and Dining Service Staff
Making the Environmental Sustainability Case to Your Faculty
These are just a few recent examples of many free environmental sustainability resources available on the NAIS website.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Myth BUSTED ... Turn out those lights!!!
This comes from the Annotated Mythbusters pages that follow the Discovery Channel's popular MythBusters series. I copy the full article below, but full details and comments on the article from Annotated Mythbusters are available here. While urban legends persist about it being more efficient to leave lights on than to turn them off because of the power surge in start-up, this episode clearly shows that it is always a good habit to turn out the lights, no matter what kind you have, when you leave a room.
Lights On or Off
Myth: You save on energy bills by leaving lights on. Some people believe that the energy to turn on lights exceeds savings of turning lights off.
They talked to Mark Reisfelt, manager of the Independent Electric Supply where they purchased their light bulbs. He felt that it was best to turn the lights off.
To test the myth, they needed to measure energy usage during startup, maintenance (steady state), and shutdown.
For steady state energy consumption, they turned on several different types of bulbs for 60 minutes and measured their consumption using a Kill A Watt: * Incandescent 90 Wh * Compact Fluorescent (CFL): 10 Wh * Halogen: 70 Wh * Metal halide 60 Wh * LED: 1 Wh * Fluorescent: 10 Wh
For startup energy consumption, Grant hooked up an inductive current loop to a computer and measured the amount of energy used when the turned on the bulbs. With an inductive current loop, you run a wire through the center, which induces a current in the loop. This current is then measured by a digital sampling oscilloscope.
Based on the amount of energy consumed turning on the bulb, they were able calculated how long the bulb would have to be turned off in order to make it worth the energy savings, i.e. "It's best to turn off the bulb if you are leaving the room for":
* Incandescent: 0.36 seconds
* CFL: 0.015 seconds
* Halogen: .51 seconds
* LED: 1.28 seconds
* Fluorescent: 23.3 seconds
In other words, its almost always best to turn the bulb off. Even the 23 seconds for the fluorescent lights isn't very long, and the rest of the times are pretty much blinks of an eye.
Bulb Longevity
They tested one final element of this myth: frequently turning lights on and off decreases their life span, thus leading to greater costs. Grant setup a timer and relay to turn the bulbs on and off repeatedly every 2 minutes. After six weeks, only the LED bulb was still working. Based on this test, they extrapolated that it would take five years of ordinary usage to cause the bulbs to burn out.
* busted *
Side-note: 105-year bulb
Grant and Kari visited the Livermore/Pleasanton Fire Department to view their light bulb that has been burning for 105 years. It has a carbon filament that is much thicker than modern bulbs and also burns much cooler/darker. You can check on the light using the bulb's webcam.
December 28, 2006
Lights On or Off
Myth: You save on energy bills by leaving lights on. Some people believe that the energy to turn on lights exceeds savings of turning lights off.
They talked to Mark Reisfelt, manager of the Independent Electric Supply where they purchased their light bulbs. He felt that it was best to turn the lights off.
To test the myth, they needed to measure energy usage during startup, maintenance (steady state), and shutdown.
For steady state energy consumption, they turned on several different types of bulbs for 60 minutes and measured their consumption using a Kill A Watt: * Incandescent 90 Wh * Compact Fluorescent (CFL): 10 Wh * Halogen: 70 Wh * Metal halide 60 Wh * LED: 1 Wh * Fluorescent: 10 Wh
For startup energy consumption, Grant hooked up an inductive current loop to a computer and measured the amount of energy used when the turned on the bulbs. With an inductive current loop, you run a wire through the center, which induces a current in the loop. This current is then measured by a digital sampling oscilloscope.
Based on the amount of energy consumed turning on the bulb, they were able calculated how long the bulb would have to be turned off in order to make it worth the energy savings, i.e. "It's best to turn off the bulb if you are leaving the room for":
* Incandescent: 0.36 seconds
* CFL: 0.015 seconds
* Halogen: .51 seconds
* LED: 1.28 seconds
* Fluorescent: 23.3 seconds
In other words, its almost always best to turn the bulb off. Even the 23 seconds for the fluorescent lights isn't very long, and the rest of the times are pretty much blinks of an eye.
Bulb Longevity
They tested one final element of this myth: frequently turning lights on and off decreases their life span, thus leading to greater costs. Grant setup a timer and relay to turn the bulbs on and off repeatedly every 2 minutes. After six weeks, only the LED bulb was still working. Based on this test, they extrapolated that it would take five years of ordinary usage to cause the bulbs to burn out.
* busted *
Side-note: 105-year bulb
Grant and Kari visited the Livermore/Pleasanton Fire Department to view their light bulb that has been burning for 105 years. It has a carbon filament that is much thicker than modern bulbs and also burns much cooler/darker. You can check on the light using the bulb's webcam.
December 28, 2006
Myth BUSTED ... Turn out those lights!!!
The following complete article comes from the Annotated Mythbusters pages that follow the Discovery Channel's popular MythBusters series. I copy the full article below, but full details and comments on the article from Annotated Mythbusters are available here. While urban legends persist about it being more efficient to leave lights on than to turn them off because of the power surge in start-up, this episode clearly shows that it is always a good habit to turn out the lights, no matter what kind you have, when you leave a room.
Lights On or Off
Myth: You save on energy bills by leaving lights on. Some people believe that the energy to turn on lights exceeds savings of turning lights off.
They talked to Mark Reisfelt, manager of the Independent Electric Supply where they purchased their light bulbs. He felt that it was best to turn the lights off.
To test the myth, they needed to measure energy usage during startup, maintenance (steady state), and shutdown.
For steady state energy consumption, they turned on several different types of bulbs for 60 minutes and measured their consumption using a Kill A Watt: * Incandescent 90 Wh * Compact Fluorescent (CFL): 10 Wh * Halogen: 70 Wh * Metal halide 60 Wh * LED: 1 Wh * Fluorescent: 10 Wh
For startup energy consumption, Grant hooked up an inductive current loop to a computer and measured the amount of energy used when the turned on the bulbs. With an inductive current loop, you run a wire through the center, which induces a current in the loop. This current is then measured by a digital sampling oscilloscope.
Based on the amount of energy consumed turning on the bulb, they were able calculated how long the bulb would have to be turned off in order to make it worth the energy savings, i.e. "It's best to turn off the bulb if you are leaving the room for":
* Incandescent: 0.36 seconds
* CFL: 0.015 seconds
* Halogen: .51 seconds
* LED: 1.28 seconds
* Fluorescent: 23.3 seconds
In other words, its almost always best to turn the bulb off. Even the 23 seconds for the fluorescent lights isn't very long, and the rest of the times are pretty much blinks of an eye.
Bulb Longevity
They tested one final element of this myth: frequently turning lights on and off decreases their life span, thus leading to greater costs. Grant setup a timer and relay to turn the bulbs on and off repeatedly every 2 minutes. After six weeks, only the LED bulb was still working. Based on this test, they extrapolated that it would take five years of ordinary usage to cause the bulbs to burn out.
* busted *
Side-note: 105-year bulb
Grant and Kari visited the Livermore/Pleasanton Fire Department to view their light bulb that has been burning for 105 years. It has a carbon filament that is much thicker than modern bulbs and also burns much cooler/darker. You can check on the light using the bulb's webcam.
December 28, 2006
Lights On or Off
Myth: You save on energy bills by leaving lights on. Some people believe that the energy to turn on lights exceeds savings of turning lights off.
They talked to Mark Reisfelt, manager of the Independent Electric Supply where they purchased their light bulbs. He felt that it was best to turn the lights off.
To test the myth, they needed to measure energy usage during startup, maintenance (steady state), and shutdown.
For steady state energy consumption, they turned on several different types of bulbs for 60 minutes and measured their consumption using a Kill A Watt: * Incandescent 90 Wh * Compact Fluorescent (CFL): 10 Wh * Halogen: 70 Wh * Metal halide 60 Wh * LED: 1 Wh * Fluorescent: 10 Wh
For startup energy consumption, Grant hooked up an inductive current loop to a computer and measured the amount of energy used when the turned on the bulbs. With an inductive current loop, you run a wire through the center, which induces a current in the loop. This current is then measured by a digital sampling oscilloscope.
Based on the amount of energy consumed turning on the bulb, they were able calculated how long the bulb would have to be turned off in order to make it worth the energy savings, i.e. "It's best to turn off the bulb if you are leaving the room for":
* Incandescent: 0.36 seconds
* CFL: 0.015 seconds
* Halogen: .51 seconds
* LED: 1.28 seconds
* Fluorescent: 23.3 seconds
In other words, its almost always best to turn the bulb off. Even the 23 seconds for the fluorescent lights isn't very long, and the rest of the times are pretty much blinks of an eye.
Bulb Longevity
They tested one final element of this myth: frequently turning lights on and off decreases their life span, thus leading to greater costs. Grant setup a timer and relay to turn the bulbs on and off repeatedly every 2 minutes. After six weeks, only the LED bulb was still working. Based on this test, they extrapolated that it would take five years of ordinary usage to cause the bulbs to burn out.
* busted *
Side-note: 105-year bulb
Grant and Kari visited the Livermore/Pleasanton Fire Department to view their light bulb that has been burning for 105 years. It has a carbon filament that is much thicker than modern bulbs and also burns much cooler/darker. You can check on the light using the bulb's webcam.
December 28, 2006
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