| Energy Management is a High Priority for Cornell University | |
In the spring of
2001, Harold D. Craft Jr., vice president for administration and
chief financial officer raised the bar for Cornell as a university
regarding energy use in our facilities.
In response to student concern and action, Hal issued a
statement committing Cornell to action on what is commonly known as
the Kyoto Protocol. His
pledge stated that Cornell would"do everything within its ability, consistent with the university's obligations for teaching, research, service and extension, to implement the Kyoto Protocol standards and to issue a regular report on our progress." |
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Later in 2001, Hal asked the department of utilities and energy
management to create and lead a Kyoto task team to carry out that
pledge. Since that
time, the team was formed and a great deal of work has been
completed and much more is planned, as we work toward a carbon
dioxide emission target in 2010 that is 7% less than in 1990. The Kyoto task team assembled to work as a steering group on this effort includes Audrey Lowes and Lanny Joyce from utilities and energy management, Jim Kazda from contract college facilities, Randy Lacey from Planning, Design and Construction (PDC), and Jim Gibbs from Maintenance Management. It also includes two faculty and two students (the students representing the KyotoNOW! student group). Information about team accomplishments, plans, meeting minutes, outreach efforts can be found at www.utilities.cornell.edu/utl_ldktt.html . Did you know you can reduce your computer monitor use by 95%???Nearly all of us that work with an office and desk use a computer. Did you know that the computer monitor on your desk and the computer itself are consuming as much energy as two 80 watt light bulbs?? The good news is that there are ways to limit that energy use, and you have the ability to make the changes necessary to be a "green computer."If you have a non-lap top computer, you either have a "CRT" TV tube type display or a flat LCD screen. A typical CRT screen uses about 80-100 watts when the screen is on. The screen saver you may have, to create a moving design across the screen when not in use, DOES NOT save energy. However, there is a power saving mode you can set up typically through your screen saver setup. This mode will put your monitor to sleep after a user adjustable amount of no use, reducing the power use to 5 watts, a 94% reduction. A simple wiggle of the mouse will "wake it up" and restore your image in about 5 seconds. Please ask your computer support person for help in setting this feature, or check out a web link set up by Keith Boncek from AF&F at www.ccd.cornell.edu/green/index.html . The best thing to do at night and weekends is to shut the monitor off, as you shut the lights off on the way out of the office. A common misconception is that this will shorten the life of your monitor, this is not true. Many staff at Cornell have shut off their monitor and computer every day for the last 15 years without a single problem (they all become obsolete for other reasons much quicker than they wear out!). If you have recently purchased a new flat LCD type of display, these use considerably less energy than CRT's. The LCD monitor uses about 35 watts, and still can be set to a power save mode just like the CRT that reduces it to about 5 watts when it is "asleep." You need to set this mode, just like on the CRT, so please do so and shut it off when you are leaving the office at night. What to do with your computer itself...The computer in many departments must remain on at least one night per week for backups or maintenance. In some instances, computers must remain on all the time for nightly network access. Please check with your computer support folks and find out when you can shut it down and do so. We have an estimated 20,000 computers on campus, and at 80 watts each that means we have 1,600,000 watts to save! Don’t forget printers, server monitors, copiers and other office equipment. They all consume lots of electricity and may require you to set the "power save mode." Let’s all do our best to practice green computing and minimize the energy use for this essential, but energy consuming part of our office environment. W. S. (Lanny) Joyce, P.E. wsj1@cornell.edu Manager Engineering, Planning, and Energy Management Department of Utilities and Energy Management |
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