Kill-a-Watt Challenge saves University over $21,000

By: Zoraida Pastor / Staff Writer

In a competition that challenged students to reduce their energy consumption, Intellectual Decisions on Environmental Awareness Solutions’ Kill-a-Watt Challenge saved more than $21,000.

“Kill-a-Watt is an energy saving competition between all buildings on campus. It’s modeled after a program [at] the University Of Central Florida that has been going on for four years,” said Viktor El-Saieh, president of I.D.E.A.S.

Residents in each hall competed against other buildings to reduce their electrical consumption by the greatest percentage.  The savings are then compared to the average of each building’s energy consumption from previous years.  University Park Apartments won the competition by saving the University more than $7,500.

According to El-Saieh, FIU saved over 40,000 kilowatt hours, most commonly known as the billing unit for energy delivered to consumers by electric utilities.

“Rates fluctuate based on peak and off-peak hours so KWH more accurately describes savings. Taking into consideration the average rate is anywhere from 10 to 15 cents per KWH, we alone saved anywhere from $4,000 to 4,500 just with the competition whereas the University saved more than $21,000 in energy costs with our help,” said El-Saieh.

The 2010 Kill-a-Watt Challenge was a two-fold program that aimed to educate students on energy saving tips with a series of workshops.  They were “able to reach out to over 200 FIU students through our ten educational seminars, the majority of which lived on campus,” said El-Saieh.

Each of these seminars provided students with tips and solutions that could conserve energy.  Along with raffles and giveaways, seminar participation determined the three resident assistant scholarship recipients.  The RA scholarships were based on percentage of student attendance at the seminars. The RA would then nominate students who would write a two-page essay for a chance to win the three available student scholarships according to El-Saieh.

The Arcalux Grand Prize in the RA division went to Kaylyn Cardella from Lakeview North winning a $300 tuition scholarship, second place went to Dialita Desty from Bay Vista Housing in Biscayne Bay Campus who won a $150 Tuition Scholarship, and third place went to Rosenny Augustine University Park Apartments for the $100 scholarship.

The Grand Prize winner in the Student Scholarship was Alecia Vasciannie taking first place with a $200 scholarship. Patricia Saint-Felix took the second tuition spot for $150, and the last scholarship was awarded to Nicole Hoskens for $100.

I.D.E.A.S. hoped this program could continue to promote conservation awareness in the years to come.

“Through the Kill-A-Watt Challenge, we found that collectively students can significantly reduce their energy consumption and their university’s carbon footprint, when approached properly and given the right incentives,” said El-Saieh.

2 Comments on "Kill-a-Watt Challenge saves University over $21,000"

  1. Excellent efforts by the IDEAS FIU chapter! It’s incredible to see how our collective efforts could lead to such drastic savings in energy cost. Let’s continue the Kill-a-Watt at FIU next year!!

  2. I love my Kill A Watt.. I use it all the time. It has saved me a lot of money personally, and any business or school could use it. I had to perform the calculations to put kWh into $$$ terms so much I made a simple webpage calculator that anyone can use, check it out:
    http://www.sustainabilitybythesea.org/calculators/kill-a-watt-calculator/

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