Sustainable Community Development Initiative

Conserve Energy Challenge

This is an annual energy challenge between the on-campus living centers that encourages friendly competition to find out what facility conserves the most energy in a month, compared to the previous years energy conservation. Check out the 2010 challenge results on Campus Housing's site.

 

    

How do you measure enegry reduction?


Before we see how much electricity costs, we have to understand how it's measured.

When you buy gas they charge you by the gallon.
When you buy electricity they charge you by the kilowatt-hour (kWh). When you use 1000 watts for 1 hour, that's a kilowatt-hour.

 

       


Stafford: Congratulations!
This was the energy reduction from last year in the month of November: 6960 kWh

At an average rate/kWh*,
this reduction saved approx. $556.

*rates differ based on housing unit and campus
 

Here's the formula to figure the cost of running a device:

wattage   x   hours used  /  1000  x  price per kWh  =   cost of electricity

 

If your device doesn't list wattage, but it does list amps, then just multiply the amps times the voltage to get the watts. For example:

2.5 amps   x   120 volts   =   300 watts

 

Difference between watts and watt-hours:

  • Watts is the rate of use at this instant.
  • Watt-hours is the total energy used over time.

Watts is not for any period of time, because watts is a rate at that instant.

The only way to know what you're actually paying is to check your bill carefully.