Turn out the lights in your house and note the little lights glowing in the dark. The chargers for phones, Ipods, night lights and all the other energy “vampires” all add to your monthly electric bill.
Electronic gadgets already account for about 15% of household electric consumption, a share that is rising rapidly as the number of these gadgets multiplies. Last year, the world spent $80 billion on electricity to power all these household electronics.
Oklahoma State University Physical Plant Director Rick Krysiak told the Stillwater Rotary Club that he faced a huge challenge in reducing energy use.
Old buildings and equipment must support increasing energy use from more computers and electronic equipment as OSU adds faculty and students.
Planners faced the problem of no money for building retrofits or energy efficient equipment for heating, cooling and electrical use.
They came up with an innovative solution, change behavior of energy users. Involve everyone in saving energy and do it in a systematic way.
The result is a behaviorally-based energy conservation program for the entire OSU System.
“Everyone who uses energy is a part of the solution,” said Krysiak.
“We contracted with a nationally known company with a reputation for saving money in K-12 schools and they are excited about working with a major university.”
Planners looked at facility needs, occupancy patterns, system configurations, work environment, malfunctioning equipment and savings opportunities. OSU hired an energy education manager to lead the effort.
What is the result of depending on faculty, staff and students to save energy? In 2008, the OSU System saved $3,944,580, a 16 percent savings over previous years.
Add savings thus far in 2009, the program has saved $5,069,280. Krysiak pointed out that this proves that people are willing to save energy if they know the system works.
This program has increased the spirit of cooperation and sense of doing good on all OSU campuses.
In addition, people are taking home the concepts learned at work and applying them in their own homes.
OSU now is a certified “Energy Star Partner” that has saved over 55 million kilowatt hours of energy and reduced CO2 emissions by 35,997 metric tons.
“This team building did not require lots of meetings,” Krysiak pointed out.
“The savings from this collective effort allowed us to bring over $180 million worth of new facilities on line with no increase in the utilities budget.”
“There is a lot of talk about ‘becoming green’ and we are actually doing it in a big way.”
