Category Archives: Conservation

Residence Hall Energy Tips

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  • Become aware of the costs for air conditioning, heating, appliances and other equipment.
  • Use a light jacket or sweater to help take the chill off during heating months.
  • Use a portable fan when you are warm during the cooling months.
  • Portable space heaters waste energy and can cause electrical circuit problems with near-by equipment.  Space heaters are not permitted in Residence Halls.
  • Turn off lights, computers, printers, coffee makers, television, VCR, DVD, radios and other equipment when not in use.
  • Use low flow control settings on air conditioners whenever leaving the room for an extended period of time, such as evenings and weekends.
  • Set thermostats and humidistats to comfortable settings.  Do not set settings to the extreme.
  • Turn everything off while you are gone for the winter break, spring break, summer break, holidays and weekends.
  • Wash and dry full loads of clothing and clean lint filters after each use.
  • Conserve water by taking short showers.Conserve water by not leaving water running while brushing your teeth.
  • Rinse your razor in a sink filled with a few inches of water.  You can rinse your blade just as easily as with running water and a lot less wastefully.
  • Conserve water by reporting leaky faucets and running toilets.
  • Do not use toilets as a trashcan.  Each time you flush trash down the toilet you waste up to seven gallons of water.
  • Report energy waste to Resident Hall Managers.
  • Wear heavier clothes in the winter and lighter clothes in the summer.

Home/Apartment Energy Tips

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  • Raise your air conditioner thermostat from 72F to 78F degrees to save as much as 18% on cooling.
  • Lower your heater thermostat to 68F degrees.
  • Replace the return air filter at least once a month.
  • Wear lighter clothing and use fans during the cooling season.
  • Wear heavier clothing during the heating season and lower the heater’s thermostat setting.
  • Close shades or blinds when it is warm to reduce solar heat gain.  Open them when you are cool.
  • Use lower wattage and fluorescent bulbs and turn off lights when not in use.
  • Do heat producing tasks (cooking, laundry, dishwashing) in early morning or late evening during the summer months.
  • Turn off lights, computers, coffee maker, television, DVD, VCR, radios and other equipment when not in use.
  • Open windows and use fans instead of air conditioning on cooler days.
  • Set the water heater’s temperature between 110 and 120 degrees.  (Electric water heaters require that both elements be reset – unplug first!)
  • Install an insulation blanket on the water heater.
  • Use a timer to turn off the water heater when it is not in use.
  • Use your microwave rather than your oven whenever possible.
  • Check weather stripping on doors and window and replace or repair when necessary.
  • Caulk penetrations and around windows.
  • Check the attic insulation.  R-30 is recommended for this area.
  • Wash and dry full loads of clothing and clean lint filters after each use.
  • Wash only full loads in the dishwasher.
  • Perform a maintenance service check on your heating and cooling system annually.
  • A programmable thermostat will automatically coordinate a home’s temperature with daily, weekend and nighttime patterns to increase comfort and savings.
  • Conserve water by taking short showers.
  • Conserve water by not leaving water running while brushing your teeth.
  • Conserve water by repairing leaky faucets and running toilets.
  • Do not over water the lawn.

Energy Saving Tips for University Apartment Residents

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Download Brochure (PDF)

TAMU Office of Energy Management – http://energy.tamu.edu
Conserving Energy: the NEW Aggie Tradition

During the Summer:

  • Raise the thermostat’s setting to the highest comfortable level.  An average savings of 3% can be achieved for every degree raised.  A thermostat setting of 78º F or higher is recommended.
  • The best solution when you leave your home is to turn off the air conditioner. A good solution is to raise the thermostat up six degrees.  Turning the air conditioner off could save up to 8¢ to 12¢ per hour.
  • Use fans to keep cool. Fans use about one tenth the energy of an average air conditioner. The gentle breeze from a fan helps remove moisture from the surface of your skin and allows you to feel cooler.
  • Wear lighter (thinner) clothes so less body heat is trapped by clothing.
  • Close shades and/or blinds when direct sunlight hits your windows.
  • On cooler days, open windows and use fans.
  • Do heat producing tasks in the early morning or late evening.  Try not to wash and dry clothes or cook during the heat of the day.  These tasks will heat up your home when the air conditioner is working its’ hardest to keep your home cool.
  • Keep air vents or air registers clear from all objects such as furniture, a TV, stereo equipment, boxes, etc.

During the Winter:

  • Lower the thermostat’s setting to the lowest comfortable level. An average savings of 2% can be achieved for every degree lowered. A thermostat setting of 68º F or lower is recommended.
  • Lower the thermostat even lower while you’re sleeping.  An average savings of 1% can be achieved for every degree lowered over an 8 hour period.
  • Wear heavier (thicker) and layered clothes so more body heat is trapped by clothing.
  • Open drapes and blinds during the day to let the sunlight warmth inside. Close drapes and blinds at night to help keep the heat inside.

Lighting:

  • Turn off lights when not in the room.
  • Use compact fluorescent bulbs where possible. Compact fluorescents use an average 75% less energy and last an average 10 times longer when compared to incandescent bulbs.

Cooking:

  • Use a microwave rather than the oven whenever possible.  The microwave heats food faster with less energy.
  • Keep pots covered while cooking. As an example, cooking spaghetti without a lid uses 3 times as much energy.
  • Use pots and pans that match the burner size.
  • Use the smallest pan and burner needed for the job.
  • Use the low or medium flame or burner setting.  Cooking seldom requires a high flame or burner setting.
  • Keep the oven and burners cleaned.
  • Don’t be an “Oven Peeker”. Every time you open the oven, the temperature is lowered 25 to 75 degrees.
  • Don’t preheat the oven if food requires more than an hour of cooking time.
  • Turn off the oven 5 minutes before food is done.

 

Water Conservation:

  • Take short showers. Not only will you reduce water usage, but you will also reduce the costs of heating the water.
  • Do not leave water running while brushing teeth or cleaning a razor.
  • Report leaky faucets, running toilets and water leaks to the University Apartment Maintenance as soon as possible.
  • Do not use toilets as a trashcan which can waste up to 7 gallons of water.

 

General Tips:

  • Turn off any electrical appliance that is not being used, such as computers, coffee makers, stereo equipment, radio, TV, lights, etc.
  • Wash and dry full loads of clothes.
  • Don’t overload a clothes washer.
  • Use cold water when washing clothes.
  • Clean the clothes dryer lint filter after each use.
  • Line dry clothes which will save approximately 27¢ to 32¢ per load.
  • When purchasing appliances, look for the Energy Star Label.
  • Report maintenance issues to University Apartments Maintenance.

Office Energy Tips

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  • Close shades or blinds when it is warm to reduce solar heat gain.  Open them when you are cool or need natural lighting.
  • Use a light jacket or sweater to help take the chill off.
  • Use a portable fan when you are warm.
  • Portable space heaters waste energy and can cause electrical circuit problems with near-by equipment.  Space heaters are allowed for use, by exception only, if space temperatures cannot be maintained between 68F and 72F degrees during the heating season.  Call Area Maintenance if your space temperature is not being maintained at or near 70F degrees so adjustments can be made.
  • Keep outside doors and windows closed.
  • Turn off lights in a space whenever it will be unoccupied for more than 5 minutes.
  • Turn off equipment not being used, including computers, monitors, coffee makers, copiers, printers and fax machines.
  • Turn off lights and equipment, including copiers, printers, faxes, computers and other office equipment, during nights and weekends.
  • Have the building proctor develop assignments to manually turn-off lights when not in use.
  • Adopt a last person out policy.  The last person leaving labs, lecture rooms, offices and meeting rooms should be responsible for turning off lights and equipment.
  • Conserve water by reporting leaky faucets and running toilets.
  • Report uncomfortable building conditions to the appropriate area maintenance shop.
  • Report water or energy waste to the appropriate area maintenance shop.
  • Laboratory workers should keep fume hood sashes at minimum working height after set-up.
  • When purchasing PCs, monitors, fax machines and copiers, look for the Energy Star models.
  • Implement paper reducing strategies such as double-sided printing and using e-mail instead of sending memos and faxes.  Saving paper saves energy because it takes 10 times more energy to manufacture a piece of paper than it does to put an image on it.
  • Campus thermostats should be set at 70F degrees for heating and 75F degrees for cooling.  Area Maintenance should be contacted if a thermostat needs to be adjusted.

Computer and Office Energy Savings Tips

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Download Brochure (PDF)

Conserving Energy: The NEW Aggie Tradition

… turn off your computer!
Turn off your computer at night and when you are not using it for several hours.

  • Enable the Power Management feature for your monitor (see below).
  • Turn off your monitor when you are not using your computer for 15 minutes or longer.
  • If you buy a new computer, consider a laptop. Laptops use only 1/4 the energy.
  • If you buy a new monitor, consider a flat screen.  It uses only 1/3 the energy.

COMPUTER MYTHS AND FACTS

Myth #1: Turning off my computer is bad for my computer – Wrong!

Fact
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory states that modern hard disks are not affected by frequent shut-downs and that equipment may actually last longer because mechanical wear and heat stress are reduced.

Action
Turn off your computer at night!

Savings
If all students at Texas A&M University turned off their computers at night for 6 hours, it would save over $650,000 in electricity costs annually!

Security Benefit
When you turn your computer off you decrease the risk of someone accessing your files or e-mail.

Myth #2: Computers don’t really need a lot of power if they are on but not used – Wrong!

Fact
During heavy usage (e.g., when you open a new application) your computer draws only slightly more power.  The average computer uses about 120 Watts (75 Watts for the screen and 45 Watts for the CPU) whether you’re using it or not.

Action
Turn off your computer if you are not using it for 1 hour or more!

Savings
One computer left on 24 hours a day will cost you $64 – $115 in electricity costs a year and
dump 850-1,500 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere. A tree absorbs between 3-15 lbs of CO2 each year. That means that 60-300 trees would be needed to offset the yearly emissions of one computer left on all the time!

Myth #3: Screen savers save -Wrong!

Fact
Despite the name, screen savers don’t save anything, especially not power!

Action
Turn off your monitor if you are not using your computer for more than 15 minutes!

Savings
If your monitor uses 80 Watts, turning it off at night and weekends saves approximately $34 per year!
Enable The Power Management Feature On Your Computer
Instructions differ slightly from system to system.

On PCs (running Windows)
1. Right-click on your desktop. A dialog box appears.
2. Select Properties.
3. Select Screen Saver tab.
4. Select Energy Saving Features or Power.
5. Select Settings.
6. Select the number of minutes after which you want your screen (and your CPU) to power down. We recommend something between 5-15 minutes.  Not all computers let you install Power Management features (e.g. Windows NT).

If you have trouble on older machines, disable this feature.

On Macs
1. Go to the Apple Icon.
2. Select Control Panels.
3. Select Energy Saver.
4. Select Show Details.
5. Check Seperate Timing for Display Sleep.
6. Select the number of minutes after which you want your screen (and your CPU) to power down. We recommend something between 5-15 minutes.

Save up to 70% on energy costs by using Energy Star computers, monitors, printers, fax machines, copiers and other equipment.  Over its lifetime, Energy Star qualified equipment in a single home office (e.g., computer, monitor, printer and fax) can save enough electricity to light an entire home for more than 4 years. Visit www.energystar.gov for more information.

Learn more about conserving campus energy and water resources by visiting us at: http://energy.tamu.edu

Conserving Energy: The NEW Aggie Tradition

Five Habits of Conserving People at TAMU

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  1. Turn off all unnecessary building lighting, research equipment, office equipment, computers/monitors and appliances – throughout the work day and especially after hours.
  2. Eliminate the use of space heaters in office and research areas. Building cooling/heating systems should be set to maintain 70F degrees for heating and 75F degrees for cooling. If this standard cannot be maintained, call the designated Area Maintenance Office for your building so necessary repairs can be made.
  3. Ensure computers, monitors, printers, copiers and other equipment, is purchased to meet high energy efficiency standards. Energy Star is an international standard for office equipment and electronics, incorporating high efficiency with options such as “standby” or “hibernation” features. Make sure these energy-saving features are enabled on office equipment.
  4. Be a “Champion” for energy conservation in your department and building. Discuss energy conservation with your staff, faculty and students to raise awareness and promote conservation.
  5. Report any observation of wasteful use (e.g. cooling, heating, electricity, water). Call your Area Maintenance Office regarding any building system problems. Call AggieWorks at 458-5500 regarding other opportunities you see to improve building or campus energy efficiency.