About Us
For more information about IU's energy conservation efforts, visit
the IU Energy Challenge site, or the Office of Sustainability. »
Best Bets for Reducing Office and Lab Energy Consumption
All areas:
- Turn off lights when not in use and maximize natural light.
- Fact: Lighting accounts for 29% of energy use in typical office spaces.
- Set thermostats to 65 in winter and 80 in summer.
- Fact: For each degree you lower your heat between 60 -70 degrees, you save up to 5% on heating costs.
- Don't turn on sink faucet in the restroom until you're ready to rinse the soap off your hands.
Fact: The foamy soap available in IU restroom facilities is designed to be used on dry hands.
- Use the stairs instead of the elevator.
- Keep exterior doors closed.
Office/Desk space:
- Set your monitor to go to sleep mode after 20 min of inactivity. (Start Menu> Control Panel>Power Options)
- Fact: Computer monitors consume half of the energy used to power the computer.
- Turn off computers at the end of the day. (Leave on one night per week for updates.)
- Fact: IU offers the Go Green Gadget that will help monitor and reduce your computer's energy consumption. Or visit RePower's video guides to setting your computer to go to sleep after 5 minutes.
- Ditch the screen savers.
- Fact: LCD monitors don’t need them and they use unnecessary additional energy.
- Use a laptop instead of a desktop.
- Fact: A laptop can save 80 – 90 % of the energy a desktop uses.
- Use the power save mode on office equipment.
General Lab:
- Turn off lights when not in use and maximize natural light.
- Shut down energy intensive equipment when not in use (heat blocks and water baths).
- Use surge protector power strips on equipment and turn off power when equipment is not in use to save on residual power draws. And unplug unused equipment that isn't on a power strip.
- Keep hallway doors closed (don't prop them open) to optimize air handling efficiency within the building, especially in Myers and Simon Halls.
Autoclaves:
- Run full loads—group things together.
- Use smaller autoclaves for smaller loads.
- Use good indicators so that there are not autoclave reruns or faulty media.
Hoods:
- Close fume hood sashes when not in use.
- Fact: If a fume hood is not in use, keeping the sash wide open wastes about $1,500 in energy costs per year per hood.
- Fact: IU has approximately 835 fume hoods on the Bloomington campus.
- Lower fume hoods.
- Fact: Lowering the fume hood height from 12 inches to 2 inches in hundreds of labs in five science buildings saved Harvard University an estimated $100,000 in utilities.
Appliances:
- Defrost freezers to reduce energy load consumption.
- Clean refrigerator and freezer coils (like you do at home).
- Run full loads of dishes in automatic dishwashers.
Water:
- Use DI water only if needed, tap water for hand washing and normal “non-experimental” rinsing (more energy intensive filtration).
- Report leaks to the IUB Physical Plant at 855-3740.
The above content was collected thanks to: Cornell & UCLA Green Websites, Indiana University Office of Sustainability, IU Energy Challenge, Penn State Office of Physical Plant, University of Colorado at Boulder, and Winkler Lab members