Shutting down Ohio University buildings’ lights isn’t always the most efficient way to operate, university officials said.
Keeping the lights on throughout the night oftentimes saves more energy than powering up the buildings every morning. So far in 2014, OU spent $325,076 for electricity on its Athens campus.
“Power cannot be turned off,” said Annie Laurie Cadmus, director of sustainability. “We’d have frozen pipes galore.”
OU has an aggregate power system, which makes it more difficult to turn off power in specific buildings that are not in use, Cadmus said.
“We try to be as cognizant as we can about energy consumption,” said Dustin Kilgour, executive director of Baker University Center and Event Services.
On a daily basis, Baker is kept powered well after its doors are closed, which includes its lights and all three pairs of escalators.
“It’s such a high-use building that turning the lights off and on is not an option,” Kilgour said.
Baker is staffed 24/7, so lights have to stay on. LED bulbs are in place, which should last between seven to eight years. Motion sensor lights also help to shut off unnecessary lights, Kilgour said.
Most recently, Baker powered down during the winter break for the week the university closed to students and staff members.
According to buildingdashboard.net/ohiou, which details OU’s power consumption, the first three months of school—August, September and October—were high for power usage during 2012-13 academic year.
This might be attributed to non-efficient air conditioners in warm weather.
“The real savings come from the user. If a building is using energy, we need to look at the inhabitants. I absolutely think we can be saving more money,” Cadmus said.
Students can reduce the university’s power usage, by unplugging devices when they’re not in use and using more natural light, Cadmus said.
“I’m kind of uninformed,” said Carley Sparks, a sophomore studying community health science. “It’s not the type of think I think about on a daily basis.”
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