PowerSave Green Campus Wins Energy Project Award

UC Santa Cruz's PowerSave Green Campus Team showcased their College 9 and 10 Bi-Level Stairwell Retrofit Project at the Alliance to Save Energy Summit in Los Angeles in February and tied with Cal Poly San Luis Obisbo for the best poster. Congratulations! The competition for best poster and presentation was judged by a panel of representatives from the California utilities companies, California Public Utilities Commission, campus stakeholders, and Alliance staff.

About the Project
The stairwell lights in the six College 9 and College 10 dorm buildings are constantly lit, consuming almost 83% more energy than needed. Erin Linney, a PowerSave Project Coordinator, wrote a grant to propose that the current fixtures be replaced with bi-level occupancy sensor fixtures. Bi-level lighting has two different levels of light output from a fixture and an occupancy sensor, which determines when an area is occupied and when it is empty. Tthe new sensors will reduce the lighting to 3% of the normal light output.

Educating users

This quarter, interns for UC Santa Cruz PowerSave Green Campus are planning an educational outreach campaign in the College 9 and 10 dorms to promote the College 9 and 10 Bi-Level Stairwell Retrofit Project. They plan to display signs and posters in the dorms to educate the students about the energy savings from the project. Furthermore, they hope to collaborate with the R.A.’s in the colleges to host personal energy audit training events with the dorm residents.

To find out more about the program and this project, please email Erin Linney.