Welcome!
Click Here To see your dorm's realtime energy use and current ranking in the '09 competition
Oberlin College has developed the "Campus Resource Monitoring System" to display electricity use in dormitories.
The objective is to provide real-time feedback that empowers students to conserve environmental resources.
Dorm Energy Competition '09
Between April 9 and April 23 2008 the monitored dorm that reduces its electricity use by the largest percentage will win the competition. An award will also be given to the dorm that reduces its energy use by the largest percentage over a one day period during the competition.
How is the Winning Dorm Calculated? 
Since Oberlin dorms were built at different times and with different technologies, each has a different inherent efficiency. A two week period before spring break serves as a baseline period. The dorm that consumes the least average electricity relative to this baseline consumption wins the competition. The equation used on the competition bar graph is Percent reduction = 100%*(average rate of electricity consumption so far during the competition)/(average consumption during the baseline period). This approach to competing adjusts for differences in the inherent efficiency of each dorm and the past performance of current residents in each dorm.
Strategies for Success
It is up to dormitory residents to figure out the best strategies for reducing electricity consumption. This website is designed to provide residents with the tools to assess how well each dorm is doing and to monitor the environmental and economic costs of electricity consumption in Oberlin's dormitories. We suggest that you take a careful look at patterns of electricity consumption that you see when you visit the Realtime Data section of this website. Consider appliances and technologies that are responsible for the "base load" (i.e. things that are always on in a dorm). Also consider appliances that are responsible for cyclical patterns and spikes in use that occur over the course of a day. What can dorm residents do to reduce these types of consumption?
Hey, why isn't my dorm or house included?!
The simple answer is that we ran out of money. However, we recently received a new grant that will allow us to expand the system to include almost all dorms at Oberlin -- stay tuned.
Partners
Funds supporting the development of the resource monitoring and display system for Oberlin College dormitories have been provided by: Phase-I and Phase-II grants from the U.S. EPA's "People, Prosperity and the Planet" (P3) program; by a grant from the Ohio Department of Development, Office of Energy Efficiency, U.S. Department of Energy-Rebuild America Program awarded and administered by the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges; and by the Great Lakes Protection Fund.
