A More Sustainable NMU: Goal of the Road Map to 2015
As a goal of the Road Map to 2015, NMU’s strategic plan, we can all do small things related to our work and study to make Northern Michigan University more energy efficient and a more sustainable campus. The strategic approach to improving energy efficiency includes three basic components:
- operations and maintenance - making sure that a facility is performing in the way it was designed
- occupant awareness - ensuring that occupants are well informed on what they can do to reduce energy waste
- facility upgrades - involves retrofitting lighting, mechanical and the envelope of a facility for improved energy performance.
Occupant awareness is one of the most important and inexpensive ways to reduce energy waste. When lights, computers, air conditioners and other items are routinely left turned on when not needed, the energy waste and subsequent utility costs are significant. For example, leaving a light bulb lit for one day necessitates burning nearly two pounds of coal to generate the electricity. Some ways that NMU faculty, staff and students can help to reduce the Northern’s utility costs are listed below.
General Energy Quick Tips:
- Turn off lights when leaving your office for more than five minutes.
- Use natural lighting. Where feasible, turn lights off near windows.
- Replace incandescent lights with compact fluorescent lights (CFL’s) for desk lamps.
- Close or adjust window blinds to block direct sunlight to reduce cooling needs during warm months. In winter months, open blinds on south-facing windows during the day to allow sunlight to naturally heat your workspace. At night, close the blinds to reduce heat loss.
- Close all doors and windows between conditioned and unconditioned spaces.
- Turn server monitors and printers off when not in use.
- Plug electronics into a power strip that can be turned off to avoid phantom loads.
- Turn off your computer and monitor at the end of the work day. If you leave your desk for an extended period of time, turn your monitor off. For computer energy saving instruction click here
Energy Factoids: Did you know . . . ?
- There are more than 20,000 light switches on campus. Please turn lights off when you leave a room.
- Screen savers do not save energy. Instead, set your monitor to hibernation or standby mode.
- If all employees set their computer and monitor to hibernate after 30 minutes of inactivity, the annual energy savings would be approximately $35,000/year, which is equivalent to 67 acres of trees being planted and equal to removing 54 cars from our transportation system.
- Shutting a computer down daily does not shorten its life. Turn you computer off overnight and on weekends.
- The power adapter for your laptop uses electricity even when the power is off. Unplug it when not in use.
- Consolidate contents of refrigerators or freezers – a full freezer is more efficient to keep cold than a half empty freezer. Consolidate refrigerators in your area and unplug unused appliances to reduce energy consumption.
- A typical 5-foot-wide fume hood increases heating and cooling costs by $5,000 a year. Closing the sash increases safety and can decrease energy use.
- A typical 1500W space heater consumes $16 per month when being used 6 hours a day.
- If every office on campus turned its thermostat down 2 degrees, the campus energy savings would be approximately $6,000 annually.
- Shades and blinds can reduce a room’s peak cooling load by 30-50 percent.
