Tips to reduce your energy consumption!

Heating:

-If the heat is on and feels too hot, don’t open windows—turn the heat down! Open windows are the biggest wood-frame energy-waster.
-Keep your heat on between 65o-70o during the winter.

Lighting:

-Always turn off the lights when you leave a room.
-Wesleyan-provided lighting is the most efficient but if you require additional lighting, use compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL). They use 75% less energy than conventional incandescent bulbs and last 10 times longer. They’re available for purchase at Weshop.
-Don’t leave your decorative lighting (string lights, etc) on all the time
-Just because you didn’t leave the light on doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be one to turn it off…turn living room/kitchen lights off when you see that no one’s using them.

In the Kitchen:

-Cover pots when cooking or boiling water
-Don’t use an extra refrigerator. Fridges use an extraordinary amount of electricity, and mini-fridges are even less efficient.
-Set fridge on lower settings: very cold settings use more energy and can spoil your food and make your beer explode.
-Buy plates and silverware rather than using plastics and try to use actual towels instead of paper ones
-Start composting…you can get a free bucket from the Composting Committee by emailing them at wesleyancompost@gmail.com. When its full, you just empty it into the Green Machine nearest you. Keep in mind that meat and dairy can’t be composted.
-If you’re having a small party, use your reusable cups. If you use solo cups, you can recycle them with other plastics.
-Warning: Plastic cups from Usdan Cafe/Pi may say that they are compostable but CANNOT be used in your personal composting bucket. They can, however, be recycled.
-Recycling is easy; any plastic that has the numbers 1-7 written inside the recycling triangle CAN be recycled. This includes plastic containers for sandwiches, yogurt, coffee-cup lids, etc.

Water Usage:

-Hot water comes from your house's internal combustion system, so it takes a lot of energy to produce—reduce your hot shower time by shaving/washing your face/brushing your teeth outside the shower.
-If it’s yellow let it mellow.
-Don’t leave the water on while you wash the dishes—wash the dish, turn the water on to rinse the dish.
-When you are doing laundry use the bright clothes cycle (it won’t change how your clothes look and will use less water)
-Use a laundry rack to dry your clothing/towels— The average home clothes dryer has a carbon footprint of approximately 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of CO2 per load of laundry dried


Computers:

-One computer left on 24 hours a day dumps 1,500 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere.
-Put your computer on standby/sleep—don’t use a screensaver
-Use power management features on your computer (>System Preferences >Energy Saver for Macs). Tell it to turn-off your screen after 5 minutes and go on stand-by after 15 minutes.

Appliances:

-Unplug when you’re not using it! Many electronics like chargers, laptop cords, printers, and speakers consume energy while plugged in—even if they aren’t “on”.
-Use a power strip or surge protector so you can just switch it off to turn off all those appliances.
-When you leave for break—unplug everything!