Campus Life

Energy conservation urged over holiday break

With the upcoming holiday break the University is urging students, faculty and staff to follow a quick energy-saving list before checking out of offices and residence halls.

Turn them off.
Turn off all unnecessary lights, appliances and electronics before leaving for the holiday break.

Unplug them.
Chargers for cordless electronic and electrical transformers draw power even when not connected to a device. Clean and unplug a fridge that won’t be used to save additional energy.

Turn them down.
For occupants of buildings/offices with manually operated thermostats, turn them down to 50 degrees at the close of business Dec. 23.

Close them.
Close blinds and curtains to keep the cold out and the warm in.

Faculty, staff and students are also reminded of the Holiday Heat Reduction program, which takes effect Dec. 23.

Penn State's population makes it a large user of energy and in challenging economic times it is critical to use resources responsibly. The University has adopted a wide-ranging Energy Conservation Policy (AD 64) designed to lower energy consumption through employee and student action.

In addition to specific holiday break recommendations, AD 64 provides a number of energy-saving actions you can follow year-round.

-- Turn off lights in unoccupied spaces.

-- Limit the use of personal appliances.


-- Change incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs wherever possible.


-- Set occupied spaces, where manual control is provided, no higher than 70 degrees in winter and no lower than 75 degrees in summer. In some facilities, the Office of Physical Plant can do this automatically, but most buildings must rely on occupants to set the temperature.  

-- Limit distribution and use of OPP-owned portable electric heaters for emergency use only. Personally owned space heaters are prohibited.


-- Operate window air conditioning units only when spaces are occupied.

-- Purchase Energy Star computers.

-- Turn off peripheral equipment, such as printers, when not in use.

-- Make all office equipment Energy Star purchases.

-- Encourage students to turn off and unplug gaming consoles when not in use.

-- Close fume hood sashes when not in use.

-- Report energy waste to www.opp.psu.edu.

The policy can be found at http://guru.psu.edu/policies/AD64.html. Additional energy saving guidelines are available at www.takecharge.psu.edu.

Last Updated December 18, 2014

Contact