College House Competition

Penn's Green Campus Partnership runs a three-week competition among all College Houses and Sansom Place to see which residence can reduce its electricity the most over the course of the competition. Students, staff, and faculty in each residence are challenged to reduce their normal electricity usage and help play a role in Penn’s energy conservation initiatives.

This year’s competition took place from Wednesday, October 31 – Sunday, November 18. The original start date was changed due to Hurricane Sandy.

Prior to the start of the competition, each house’s energy consumption was calculated as a part of a unique two-week baseline reading. Because the Quad is metered as one building, Fisher Hassenfeld, Ware, and Riepe work together as a single building. Residences are ranked based on their percent electricity reduction against their baseline, and the residence with the highest percentage reduction at the end of the competition is the winner!

COMPETITION RESULTS

College House	# Eco-Reps in House	% Change	kWh Change
Stouffer	5	-14.5	-7,603	#1 in % and absolute
Gregory	5	-10.2	-4,430
Quad	18	-5.5	-6,746
Sansom West	9	-3.9	-3211	Sansom East and Sansom West have similar layout, populations, and building systems. A significant difference is that Sansom West had nine Eco-Reps engaged in behavior change leadership and occupant reduction strategies.
Hill	7	-3.4	-1,366
DuBois	0	-3.0	-646
Kings Court English	0	-0.5	-281
Rodin	7	+2.4	+2,599
Sansom East	0	+3.6	+3,233
Harnwell	9	+6.6	+6,648
Harrison	3	+12.6	+11,783	The high-rise College Houses apartment layout is less conducive to community conservation efforts, and the prevalence of apartment kitchens (with refrigerators and ranges) results in a greater proportion of fixed energy use than other houses. Reliance on fan coil heating (as opposed to radiators) means that electricity use rises during cooler weather. No errors have been found in the baseline, but looking back at FY11 and FY12 data, it appears that all three high rises typically experience drastic changes in electricity usage during this season.

TRACKING

View the results for this year's competition on the Power Down Challenge Dashboard [1]. Weekly rankings and building energy usage are posted here. You can also make commitments, discuss best practices, and connect to social media. Stay tuned to the dashboard throughout the competition to view your results.

[2]

Energy savings are displayed in savings of kWh and dollars. The estimated dollar savings are based on an average rate of $.09/kWh for residential and commercial electricity pricing in our region.