Humming. Lots of humming.
That's what I heard walking around campus the weekend after graduation, as a friend and I strolled past LaFollette Complex just about dusk. A Hollywood Squares-esque assortment of now-abandoned windows sits without life, except for a handful with window-unit air conditioners.
A few of those units are attached to (apparently) occupied rooms, but a huge cluster of air units in Brayton/Clevenger halls are humming away for obvious vacant space.
Air conditioners running in empty rooms - brilliant. We've got a huge carbon footprint, but at least it's kept at 65-degrees!
Ball State University does its part in preserving the environment, but there are a few puzzling things around campus worth exploring for the sake of a greener campus. The all-encompassing problem: Things need to be turned off.
In the odd hours I've walked past Worthen Arena, mounted (and aged) television monitors in the concourse continue to roll through announcements. Game days, activity fairs and other major events might warrant the use of these screens, but late nights and open hours are wasteful. Worthen's interior is well-lit regardless of the hour, also bringing into question the number of lights we really need burning at 3:30 a.m.
There's also an insane amount of office and personal computers sit idle at night waiting to process information that isn't coming. There's something about having e-mail and instant messaging a click away that drives us to never shut down our machines. Each computer burns through the night, sucking away energy for no other purpose than to talk to other computers that aren't doing anything either. I imagine the conversation as something like this:
PC 1: "You still there?"
Apple 1: "Yeah, I'm here. Are you there?"
PC 1: "Yeah, I'm still here. Have you changed location?"
Apple 1: "No, I haven't moved. Have you moved?"
PC 1: "No."
Apple 1: "My family kicks your family's ass."
So, imagine at any moment how much energy is being used by every university-owned computer, then take into account how many of those machines never see sleep mode.
Even sleep mode is faulty, however. Just about any modern electronic device sucks away energy when it's plugged in, including microwaves with digital clocks and monitors in standby mode. Monitors alone can save energy if we just take the time to turn them off.
The office I work in this summer has a company-wide patch for its computers, forcing screens to utilize power-saving screen savers after 10 minutes of idle activity and shut off after about 15 minutes of inactivity. For a standard notebook computer, this can equal up to $7 of savings a year, according to energystar.gov. Sure, that's only a few beers every 12 months, but that's a lot of money (and conserved energy) when you're dealing with a campus of computers.
The university can control its labs, but we, as individuals, can have a greater effect than the institution. We're in control of our own office computers, laptops and lab computers, so we carry the responsibility of making these changes.
Assuming normal work days, the pollution prevented by 100 laptops with energy-efficient sleep settings can equal the planting of six acres of trees over the course of three years, according to the Energy Star site. That's around 33 percent of the Christy Woods property.
And the only humming you'll hear there comes from the wildlife.
Write to Dave atheydave@bewilderedsociety.com
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