The average college dorm room is full of potential energy wasters. Be aware of these energy hogs and make your dorm a much greener place. Here are 3 simple changes you can make:
1. Never buy another incandescent light bulb. Switch the bulbs in your lamps to compact fluorescents—they last forever (basically) and use very little energy. They’ll end up saving you money on light bulbs. No matter what kind of light bulb you have, make sure you turn them off when you aren’t in the room!
2. Unplug your chargers. Leaving laptop or cell phone chargers plugged in all day is a common source of waste. Get in the habit of unplugging after you have a full battery. Also, be sure to set your computer to sleep or low-power mode when you aren’t using it.
3. Avoid the mini-fridge. Each roommate having his or her own fridge is a waste of energy: sharing is best. If this is not possible, make sure your appliances are certified by Energy Star. Energy Star is an EPA program that seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by identifying energy-efficient appliances.
As an experiment, a group of students at Tulane University created the Energy Star Dorm Room, filling a room entirely with energy-efficient appliances, computers, lights, etc. Their findings were pretty impressive. They learned that each room could save 594 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere per school year—that translates into almost forty dollars of savings. Not bad, but especially striking when you consider the estimated savings if all 3,257 students in Tulane residence halls were to make the same changes: $61,728—almost a million pounds of carbon dioxide!
Did you know that changing a light bulb can significantly reduce your individual contribution to greenhouse gases?
One 10,000 hour, 18W CFL used in place of a 75W incandescent can prevent 900 pounds of greenhouse gases from
entering the atmosphere over its lifetime.
According to the Energy Star website, if every U.S. household replaced the bulbs in their five most frequently
used light fixtures with Energy Star-qualified ones, we would prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from
nearly 10 million cars.
Did you know if just 10% of worldwide cell phone users unplugged their chargers after their phones were fully charged,
enough energy would be saved to power 60,000 European homes per year?
Phone chargers are very inefficient devices. If just a small number of cell phone users got into the habit of
unplugging their chargers, they would make huge energy savings.
Did you know Energy Star refrigerators use a minimum of 20% less energy than is required by federal standards?
Become an energy star yourself by choosing a certified model and making huge savings on money and carbon
emissions.
