Kill-A-Watt Competition

Kill-A-Watt's Mission

The Kill-A-Watt competition’s primary goal is to get students in campus dormitories involved in energy saving and sustainability. In doing so, habits that help create a healthy environment are encouraged. By incorporating social science research, we are able to recommend methods of improving the program by pointing out its main weaknesses.

A question everybody should think of, is "How can we appeal to audiences?" in order accomplish our goal.

External links:

• http://sustainability.umich.edu/news/kill-watt-university-michigan-preps-2012-residence-hall-challenge

• http://sustainability.umich.edu/kill-watt-program

• http://www.killawattum.org/

Interesting facts:

1. When you turn on an incandescent light bulb, only 10 percent of the electricity used is turned into light. The other 90 percent is wasted as heat.  

2. Enough sunlight reaches the earth’s surface each minute to satisfy the world’s energy demands for an entire year.

3. The amount of energy Americans use doubles every 20 years.

4. American hospitals are some of the most energy-intense buildings on the planet.

5. Electric utilities are the largest source of greenhouse gas in America.

6. Nuclear energy played little to no role in electricity generation 50 years ago, but in 2011, provided more than 20 percent of the energy used to generate America’s electricity.

7. In the U.S., electricity plants use more than 900 million short tons of coal to produce 40 percent of America’s electricity every year.

8. The price the environment suffers from excessive energy use would also see relief. With the energy efficiency America is striving for, the U.S. carbon dioxide emissions would decrease by 4 billion metric tons.

9. A heavy coat of dust on a light bulb can block up to half of the light.

10. Across America, home refrigerators use the electricity of 25 large power plants every year.

11. A compact fluorescent light bulb uses 75 percent less energy than a regular bulb and can last up to four years.

Why save electricity?

1. Energy saved today is an asset for the future.
2. Energy saved is energy produced.
3. Today's waste is tomorrow's shortage.
4. A thing which burns never returns - our sources of electricty are not renewable!
5. Conservation is free and waste is costly!
6. Conserving electricity saves natural resourses.

*Website created by: Rachel Omerza, Paul Kassab, Neophytos Charalambides, Milena Meehan, Anicia Mirchandani