Vice President for Administration Claude Rounds said the new plan will “re-activate, re-energize, and substantially expand energy reduction efforts” already on campus. Among efforts already in place, many light switches on campus have small stickers reminding the last person to leave to shut off the lights to conserve energy. FIXX also has signs in many bathrooms asking anyone who sees a leaky faucet to report it so that the drip can be stopped immediately.

Among the guidelines in the new plan, which went into effect on January 23: all occupied spaces throughout campus will be set at 68 degrees while unoccupied spaces, including vacant buildings during the academic breaks, will be set at 50 degrees. During the warmer months, occupied spaces will be kept at 74 degrees, whereas unoccupied spaces will not be temperature controlled. Electric space heaters are prohibited without a special exemption.

The goal, according to Rounds, is to “conserve energy to the best extent possible with the cooperation and support of the entire campus.” In addition to the general energy conservation guidelines, a multi-disciplinary team, named the Tiger Team, has been formed that will be able to work in an area, fixing problems immediately without the usual need to request another department or person come in to do work. This team will be going through all the buildings on campus, improving the efficiency of airflow and temperature management and working to make significant improvements in comfort.

Work began in the Student Union last week with the Tiger Team reprogramming many of the sensors in the rooms and common areas. One of the adjustments made was to the Union’s main air movers which have been reduced to 70-80 percent of their normal operating speed. This reduction that should require about 40 percent less energy without causing any reduction in student comfort, according to Manager of Engineering Steve Angle, who is managing the energy conservation efforts.

In addition, each building and major funded program will be reviewed individually to find ways in which it can specifically reduce its energy consumption. This includes such large energy users as laboratories, research activities, and the clean room. Capital improvements will also take place to set up airflow and energy systems that can be shut off or set to a variable output in buildings that do not have such systems. The Biotech Center, the newest building on campus, has full-time energy monitors built in, allowing the Institute to know exactly how much energy the building consumes and to help conserve it.

Some of these initiatives went into place over the last winter academic break. Students staying on campus were consolidated to one of two halls. Items in buildings that are not used when students are not on campus were turned off, such as bathroom fans in the vacant residence halls and the laboratory ventilation in Walker Laboratories. When things at RPI slow down for breaks, Rounds said the Institute is “trying to slow down the buildings accordingly.” While the final utility costs for the break have not yet come in, Angle said “the Institute expects to save $100,000 between residences and academic buildings.” In addition to crediting the mild winter Troy has had so far, Rounds thanked “the resident students for their help over the break.”

Many of the initiatives will not see their savings realized until next year. According to Rounds, once all the systems are set up, RPI should save between $750,000 and $1,000,000 each year in energy and utility costs. “We’re trying to save energy even as we’re increasing our load in other areas such as infrastructure and research,” said Rounds. Only a fraction of the $13 million that the Institute forecasts it will spend this year, the savings will help take the edge off energy prices that this month are double their January 2004 levels.