The lighting around campus varies considerably from highly efficient LED’s or low energy lamps to some older inefficient lights fitting such as T12 florescent tubes. The University is currently in the midst of changing the light fittings to lower energy, more efficient lights but this is a long and costly process. Sensors are also being fitted where possible so that lights switch of automatically when not required.
Even with these investments Plymouth University still requires the help of its users to reduce energy waste by switching off lights and other electrical equipment when no longer required.
It is estimated that savings of 20% can be achieved with your help. With an annual electricity bill of over £1.5 million and carbon emissions approaching 11000 Tonnes of CO² per annum you could make a real difference.
A small office or meeting room (15m²) costs the university £179.74 per annum in electricity. With your help savings of £35.95 equating 175.4 kg CO² could be achieved by simply turning off lights when not needed. This figure does not take into account the energy required to heat/cool a room, internal gains (heat) is given off by electrical equipment so by turning off unrequired lighting/equipment, turning the radiator down or by closing windows added savings can easily be made.
The following results show how much CO2 certain buildings on the Plymouth University campus emit each day (at 15'C and standard pressure):
Building kg of CO2 (e) per day
- Babbage: 3040
- Roland Levinsky: 2900
- Students' Union: 1056
- Portland Square: 1094
- Scott: 892
- Brunel: 217