Students get UnPLUgged
This year, PLU students are taking action and getting unPLUgged.
Throughout the year, the students of eight campus residence halls will be competing to see which of them can reduce their power consumption the most.
“It’s a way to educate people about where they are wasting (energy),” said PLU Sustainability Coordinator Christine Cooley.
More than 50-percent of the energy used in the United States is wasted, she said.
“It’s the energy you’re appliances and devices are using even when turned off,” Cooley said.
What she’s talking about is vampire or phantom loads.
“It’s often called ‘vampire loads’ because it’s stealing energy when you don’t even know it,” Cooley said. “Like when you’re sleeping.”
For the first month of the yearlong competition, students from the residence halls of will be paired against each other. The set up is Harstad vs. Tinglestad, Foss vs. Hong, Hinderlie vs. Pflueger, and Ordal vs. Stuen. The two paired halls boasting the least energy use will continue on to another bracket pairing in February and so on. Energy use, and reduction will be calculated comparing last year’s utility bill to this year’s and dividing that by the number of residents.
During the first round students from each hall will share what they are doing to save energy. One way to compare notes is on the PLU Sustainability blog, linked at plu.edu/sustainability. Once the utility bills come in and a winner is calculated the second round will begin, with Smartstrips distributed to hopefully reduce even more wasted energy.
The Smartstrips help create an energy consumption barrier when appliances and devices are not in use by the use of an on and off switch.
“There’s a switch for a reason,” said Karli Siroky, PLU senior and graphic design major, who helped shape the campaign. “And it’s little things like that, that help.”
It’s a good way to pair habits and technology in creating better energy consumption practices, Cooley said.
“There’s a lot more than just plugging and unplugging things from the wall,” she said. “The technology (to save energy) is there. People’s habits haven’t adopted to it yet.”
The final round will happen in April. Prizes will be awarded throughout the competition.
These sorts of competitions have happened at other campuses throughout the country, but this is the first of its kind to use a bracket system and to last an entire year, Cooley said. The longest she’s heard of lasted about seven weeks.
It’s really been exciting to take on such a hefty challenge, Cooley said. The whole campus community, especially groups like GREAN and the Residence Hall Association have really taken charge and made this possible, she said.
“This would not have happened without an incredible amount of collaboration,” Cooley said.
The average energy use reduction for these competitions is about 30-0percent. That can equate to a lot of dollars if PLU students reach or smash through that benchmark.
A 10-percent reduction would equal about $1,300-2,200 per month per dorm, Cooley said.
“So we could be talking about a lot of money,” she said. Money that can be poured into other sustainability projects like Take Back the Tap, solar energy or other student ideas.
This report was compiled by Doorways Editor Chris Albert. Contact Albert at albertct@plu.edu or by phone at ext. 8691.
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