The equivelant of 16 homes in North Carolina could have been powered for a month with the electricity saved by students living on Elon University's campus in a recent contest that challenged residence halls to cut back on energy use.
The Oaks and the Historic Neighborhood, which includes the the Academic Pavilions, were named the winners this week of Elon University’s 11th POWERless energy competition, a semesterly program that challenges students to conserve electricity in residence halls.
The campus saved 19,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, or the equivelant of nearly 10 tons of coal, through their efforts during the three-week contest. Residence halls competed in one of two divisions based on their size.
The Oaks and the Historic Neighborhood won the two neighborhood contests with savings of 8.3 percent and 12.3 percent, respectively. Loy A, B, C from Division II measured the highest overall reduction with 18.1 percent. In Division I, Oaks Building F saw the highest savings with a 9.5 percent reduction.
Neighborhood representatives had photos taken holding the university’s POWERless trophy with Smith Jackson, vice president for Student Life and dean of students, at College Coffee on April 1.
The total amount of energy conserved in the spring 2014 competition would power about 16 North Carolina homes for a month. The savings equated to not releasing about 10 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Since the competition first started in 2009, Elon has conserved a total of 682,553 kWh, the equivalent of:
- Competition total: 823,166 kWh
- 353 tons of coal
- 460 tons of carbon dioxide emissions
- Energy used to power 63 North Carolina homes for a year
- 228,840,148 cell phone charges
– Information provided by Elon University’s Office of Sustainability