Top 10 things everyone can do to help Rice conserve energy

Top 10 things everyone can do to help Rice conserve energy

1. Never use space heaters.

2. For office thermostats, Facilities, Engineering and Planning recommends a winter setting of 70 degrees when heating is required, and a summer setting of 76 degrees when cooling is required.

3. Turn off lights in conference rooms and classrooms when those spaces are not in use.

4. Never use halogen floor lamps.

5. Purchase energy-efficient office equipment, including computers, fax machines and copiers. Look for the “Energy Star” label, which identifies equipment that meets energy efficiency standards. Computers and monitors purchased with the Energy Star logo have built-in energy conservation features that must be enabled and configured.

6. Keep windows and doors closed.

7. Turn off all departmental office equipment at the end of the day, such as copiers and printers.

8. Use the stairs instead of the elevator.

9. To report over-cooling, over-heating, unnecessary lighting or other energy waste, contact the Facilities Service Center at 713-348-2485 during business hours or 713-348-4095 after hours.

10. Follow the Division of Information Technology (IT) energy-saving guidelines for computers:

• Configure computer monitors to turn off after 20 minutes of inactivity, hard drives to turn off after 30 minutes of inactivity and desktop computers or laptops to go into a standby or sleep mode after 90 minutes of inactivity. (If the computer does not have a standby or sleep mode, simply turn off monitor when not in use.)

• Shut down monitors and personal printers or place them in a standby mode when out of the office for more than a few hours.

• Do not use screensavers as energy savers as they continue to use the monitor at full power and do not conserve energy.

• Do not turn on computers, monitors or printers in the morning until the equipment is actually needed.

• Check with IT divisional representatives or IT support staff regarding particulars about each computer before powering-off.

—Contributed by Richard Johnson, sustainability planner for FE&P, and Rice IT.