Students get instant feedback on energy use in residence hall pilot
program
Dartmouth students living in the McLaughlin Cluster
residence halls enjoy a living space designed for efficient and sustainable
energy use. Thanks to Green Lite Dartmouth, residents can now see how their own
behavior affects the buildings’ energy use.
The initiative, launched April 24, aims to educate students through
real-time feedback on how much energy is consumed by common devices such as
hairdryers, microwaves, and laptop computers. Green Lite Dartmouth will also
serve as a resource for students looking to reduce their energy use.
The program, still in its pilot phase, “will make energy conservation
tangible,” says Neel Joshi ’11, a member of the Current Reductions team that is
leading the project. “The changes we are suggesting are very reasonable, things
like turning off lights and taking shorter showers.”
The most visible aspect of the initiative is real-time, animated displays in
the common spaces of the Rauner, Bildner, Goldstein, and Thomas residence
halls. Broadcast on low-energy monitors, the displays show animations designed
by Sonia Lei ’08 that change according to the amount of energy being used in
the building. The displays can also be used to view graphic representations of
overall dorm performance in energy savings. Green Lite’s website also provides a
record of the residence halls’ energy use over time, enabling students to see
whether they have made progress in reducing overall energy use.
Green Lite Dartmouth is the brainchild of Lorie Loeb,
co-director of the digital arts
minor and research assistant professor of computer science. Inspired by
the vision of the late Donella Meadows, a professor in Dartmouth’s environmental studies program, Loeb
worked with undergraduates to develop the technological, educational, and
design components of the initiative. The team hopes to learn how students will
modify energy usage when they can see the effects of their behavior and whether
that knowledge will encourage them to adopt energy-saving strategies. Loeb
says, “It is easy to change—sometimes all we need is information and feedback
to understand the results of each action we take.”
If the program proves successful, the Green Lite team hopes to expand to
more residence halls and even non-residential spaces on campus. Funding has
come from the Offices of the Provost and the Dean of Faculty of Arts and
Sciences, with support from the Departments of Computer Science and Sociology,
the Office of Residential Life, and Facilities Operations and Management. Mary
Finegan ’86 has donated funds to expand the program to other residence halls
and Greek houses. Team member Anise Vance ’11, working with Associate Professor
of Sociology Denise Anthony,
will conduct a survey to assess how the project has affected social norms
around energy conservation.
By GENEVIEVE HAAS
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