Students across campus are gearing up for the first Dorm Energy Competition of the year, and the stakes have never been higher. The winner of the Kill-a-Watt Competition, which started Sunday and continues for a week, will be treated to a chalk-talk with Coach Jeff Jackson of ND Men’s Hockey for the entire dorm plus $1,500 in GE Energy Star appliances.
The competition coincides with this year’s Energy Week and utilize Notre Dame’s user-friendly energy dashboard, enabling students to view, compare, and share building energy use information in real time on the web. The dashboard engages students not just by providing real-time data, but also by giving them a social media-based forum to commit to energy-saving behaviors and share winning strategies.
“The Kill-A-Watt competition is only a week, but the long-term potential is huge,” said Christian Nofziger ‘15. “Habits made during that week can develop into lifestyle changes that over time can make a huge impact.”
Energy Week is sponsored each year by the Center for Sustainability Energy (cSEND), and features a calendar packed with energy-related expos, speakers, and career dinners. This year’s Energy Week, which runs from September 23rd-29th, has expanded to include a Green Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for South Bend’s new hydroelectric turbine and a Community Energy Day tour of sustainable sites around South Bend.
The winner of the Kill-a-Watt Competition is the dorm that reduces its energy consumption by the greatest percent from its baseline of a typical week’s energy use. The Office of Sustainability thanks ND Men’s Hockey and GE for their generous support of this competition.