For its sixth year, the annual “Do It In The Dark” competition has returned. Do It In The Dark is an energy saving competition between residence halls at Plymouth State University and will be held from October 1st through November 30th. The challenge entails all dormitories attempting to save the most energy by making conscious efforts to lower consumption.
Energy conservation is as simple as remembering to turn the lights off when they’re not in use and subsequently taking advantage of the sun’s natural light. The purpose is to make changes to help our community live more sustainably as well as learn some new ways to save not only energy, but money expenditure.
Turning off unused appliances such as TVs, game consoles, microwaves and tableside lights before leaving a room or plugging electronics into a power strip that can be turned off when they are not in use, are just a few of many simple ways of which we all can aid in saving energy. This effort saves consumers both time and energy, while additionally eliminating “vampire draw”, or standby power.
Vampire draw is the electricity consumed by a device when it is turned off. Most electronics continue to circulate energy as they wait for you to hit the “power” button. These electronics include but are not limited to: televisions, stereos, coffee makers, microwaves, alarm clocks, phone chargers, bedside lamps, and laptop chargers. Drawing energy even when they are not in use, these devices have a hidden energy cost that can be misleading.
The PSU energy competition started in 2007 by the Office of Residential Life and has been coordinated each year since by the Office of Environmental Sustainability, working alongside the Office of Residential Life and Physical Plant. The departments have expressed great excitement for this years’ competition in hopes to “out-save” last year’s students.
Last year, the winners of the 2012 Do It In The Dark energy competition were the residents of Belknap Hall. They were able to reduce their energy consumption to 25.23% in comparison to the baseline energy usage taken in 2009.
What’s in it for the winning residential hall? The residence hall to save the most energy wins half price laundry for the month of February 2014, and the Laundry Equipment Company (LECO) of Manchester, NH is to thank for their support of this incredible sustainability imitative for our university.
Encourage your hall mates to get involved, and help their building save energy as well as money. If you take the initiative to lead by example, odds are, people will catch on. Ready? Set…Go! And don’t forget to Do It In The Dark!