Energy use is one of our most significant environmental impacts.
Nearly 50% of Newcastle University’s total carbon footprint is emitted through the supply of heating, cooling and power to our buildings. The University is paying over £10 million per year in utility bills alone.
Effective energy management and investing in energy efficiency, conservation, generation and awareness measures are crucial if we are to:
meet our carbon targets
maintain financial sustainability
Check campus building energy performance
Display Energy Certificates (DECs) are designed to show the energy performance of public buildings. They use a scale that runs from 'A' to 'G' - 'A' being the most efficient and 'G' being the least.
You can check the DECs and related recommendation reports for University campus buildings on the Government's website. Please note, this website is still in Beta form and shows expired as well as valid certificates for some buildings.
Did you know?
If everyone at the University turned off one light for one hour every working day, we could save over £11,000 and 50 tonnes of CO2a year - enough to fill over five double decker buses every week.
Did you know?
If left on, a single PC and screen would cost around £100 a year to run. It would emit 450Kg of CO2, which is enough to fill three double decker buses.
What you can do
General housekeeping and making us aware of areas where you believe energy is being wasted are two key actions you can take to support the work we do around energy.
Lighting accounts for around 20% of University energy use.
Because of this, we are currently underway with our £2.4 million campus-wide LED lighting scheme. We are replacing all old halogen and compact fluorescent lights with new LED like-for-like replacements.
We are also introducing new lighting controls, and recommissioning existing control infrastructure.
For areas without automatic control, turning off lights when they are not required is vitally important.
Energy Saving Actions
Don’t leave lights on in unoccupied areas. Last one out:
at the end of the day? Switch off the lights!
of a meeting room? Switch off the lights!
Switch off lights that are not needed:
in offices, corridors, meeting rooms, toilets and kitchen areas (to name a few!)
don’t switch on all lights when only a few are needed
use local desk lights if only a few people are in the building
Always make maximum use of daylight:
natural daylight is nicer to work in and carbon and cost free. If you get uncomfortable glare on your computer screen, consider rearranging your desk top (where possible) before closing blinds and turning on the lights
Reduce decorative lighting wherever possible
Report faulty lighting promptly:
a flickering tube uses more electricity as well as being very distracting
turn off lights in communal areas including shared offices, corridors and kitchens. Ask colleagues to establish who is often last in and see if they can make it part of their routine
Label switches:
label multiple banks of light switches. Rather than turning on all office lights, you can turn on just the ones you need (and take responsibility for turning them off when they are no longer needed)
Health and safety
Don't compromise health and safety standards when trying to reduce lighting levels. There are specific legal requirements for lighting levels that we must meet. For advice on these or for a lighting level assessment, please contact us.
Newcastle University has around 10,000 computers on campus which account for up to 20 per cent of the University's energy use. We work with our IT Service on energy saving projects, such as automatic shutdown of cluster computers after 30 minutes of inactivity. Technical solutions are more complicated for staff computers, making simple behavioural changes especially important.
Energy Saving Actions
Turn off your PC at the end of the day:
a standard PC uses around 100 watts of energy when switched on, but only five watts when shut down
by turning off your PC at night, you will save almost 70 per cent of the electricity used in a typical working week compared to leaving it on
if you also turn off your computer for an hour a day (over lunch or while at a meeting) this saving would increase to over 72 per cent
Turn off your monitor at the end of the day and when away from your desk:
a standard monitor uses around 40 watts of energy when switched on, about two in standby, and nothing when turned off. Your screen will automatically switch onto standby mode after 20 minutes of inactivity
by switching your monitor off at the end of each day, you could save over 16 per cent of its energy consumption
if you also turn off your monitor for an hour a day (over lunch or while at a meeting), this saving would increase to 18 per cent
In most cases it will be appropriate to purchase one of a growing range of low power PCs. Click on the company links below to find out more about their green credentials:
The University has more than 500 photocopiers and thousands of printers. They are usually shared between multiple users, so it's more difficult to know when these should be turned off and by whom.
We have funding to invest in energy saving measures, including small improvements like adding automatic timers to photocopiers. This is an action that a member of the environmental network would get involved in!
Energy saving actions
Switch off equipment at the end of the day:
a single photocopier on standby through the weekend and nights uses around £63 of electricity and creates emissions of 270Kg of carbon dioxide a year
if you know you are the last one out, please switch off printers and photocopiers
talk to colleagues and assign responsibilities for turning off shared equipment
Request an automatic timer:
if you'd like an automatic timer for a photocopier in your building, please send a request to saveit@ncl.ac.uk
Only print or copy when necessary:
unnecessary printing wastes paper, ink and energy. Think before you print.
Print double sided wherever possible
Instructions for setting double sided printing on your PC
Optimum office temperature is typically 19°C to 21°C
legal minimum temperature for offices is 16°C
Comfort cooling should not be set to come on below 25°C
1°C reduction in room temperature can save 6 to 8 percent on heating costs and CO2 emissions
Air conditioned buildings use about twice as much energy as naturally ventilated ones – even small 'comfort cooling' systems are energy intensive to run
The University spends in excess of £2.5m on heating and cooling buildings. Many of our buildings have sophisticated controls which keep conditions at the required comfort levels. We are investing in a number of energy saving projects, including a programme of control upgrades which will make the systems more efficient.
Due to the nature of many University buildings, it's hard to achieve a consistent level of heating from room to room and building to building. In addition, everybody has different temperature tolerances. This makes getting the 'right' temperature hard to achieve. But there are a number of actions you can take to help save energy and improve your comfort levels.
Projects requiring cooling
The refrigerants used in AC systems can have a global warming potential thousands of times greater than that of CO2. The University aims to limit the use of air conditioning due to its high costs and environmental impact. The installation of new AC systems is subject to an assessment and approval process. We recognise that internal temperatures must be tightly controlled for some applications such as temperature sensitive research equipment. But we won't normally accept requests for comfort cooling. ESS will work with units to assess alternative approaches to achieving thermal comfort for occupants.
Close doors and windows when heating and air conditioning is on:
report doors and windows that do not seal correctly when closed to ESS customer services on Ext 87171
Dress appropriately for the weather conditions:
as we all feel cold to different degrees, great way to maximise personal comfort is to wear the most appropriate clothing for you
rooms vary in temperature across campus, so it's advisable to wear layers
Familiarise yourself with local heating controls:
some office radiators have thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) which you can alter
Do not use portable electric heaters:
electric heaters are not only expensive to run but are also responsible for greater CO2 emissions. If your work area's too cold (typically lower than 19°C) report this to ESS customer services on Ext 87171, and the issue can be investigated.
Request a room thermometer strip:
if you feel that your office is too hot or too cold, please request a thermometer strip. Email sustainable-campus@ncl.ac.uk
Ensure that heating and cooling systems are not running at the same time
Report occupancy patterns:
heating (or cooling) empty buildings or unoccupied areas is a waste of energy. If your building is taking too long to heat up, the heating controls can be adjusted to turn it on earlier.
Report heating issues:
if you think there may be a fault with the heating or cooling systems in your area, report it to ESS customer services on Ext 87171.
All vending machines managed by EAT@NCL are rated A+ for energy efficiency and contain features including:
LED lighting
PIR power down
Triple insulation
Zip boilers
A Zip boiling water unit for hot drinks uses a third of the energy of electric kettles. They also save water by providing as much as is needed on demand.
