One glimpse at the Do It In The Dark competition website, with its difficult-to-read black writing and dark gray background, might put off the average Wesleyan student. Upon closer inspection, however, each section of the page has its own light bulb icon that can—if clicked—illuminate the background in bright yellow. The website sends a simple message: lights—and other sources of energy—should only be used when necessary.

Wesleyan’s administration has had difficulties pursuing large-scale environmental reforms due to the University’s relatively small endowment. Three years ago, however, students took up the initiative to implement a senior woodframe energy conservation competition, Do It In The Dark.

“It’s basically a competition among senior woodframe houses to see who can use the least amount of energy and by using the least amount, who can conserve the most,” said Grace Petersen ’09, who is in charge of the competition this year along with Emma Goodstein ’10.

To determine the energy consumption of the senior woodframes, the utilities department first records the energy invoices of each property on campus and enters them into a database. The students in charge of the competition obtain this data for the monthly energy consumption of each house, and then divide by the area of the house and the heating degree days.

“The heating degree days account for when students are using heat for colder days, so we can tell when the energy consumption is not frivolous,” Petersen said.

Each month, the residents of the two winning houses—the one with the lowest BTU count for that month and the other with the biggest improvement from the month before—receive a twenty-dollar certificate to one of three Middletown restaurants: La Boca, Havelli’s, or Eli Cannon’s.

The prizes have been fairly effective incentives. Last year, woodframes reduced electrical consumption by over 300,000 kilowatt-hours. Other results, namely those for fossil fuel consumption, however, were not so promising.

“Wesleyan is the best of breed when it comes to electrical consumption, but not when it comes to fossil fuels,” said Associate Director of Utilities Management Peter Staye. “We consume slightly more fossil fuels than other universities, and a lot of that is because of the woodframes, not the students in them.”

Petersen agreed that the senior woodframes themselves are problematic.

“It’s a great privilege to be able to live in the house, but the houses use up 40 percent of the energy used to power all the buildings on campus,” Petersen said. “One giant boiler heats the water for a whole dorm, whereas a boiler does the same thing for 5 people in a house. In that factor alone it’s not efficient to have individual houses.”

Furthermore, the woodframes, for the most part, are old and lack proper insulation.

“There are big restrictions on these old senior houses, which are just inherently inefficient,” said Miller Nuttle ’09, one of the competition’s primary organizers. “With the competition, we’re trying to maximize the behavior component so we can preserve energy.”

In an attempt to change students’ behavior, Nuttle and Petersen have gone to ten senior houses this year to directly inform residents of their energy consumption.

“Students have never paid their own bills, so they’re not aware of their direct usage,” Petersen said. “If we don’t show them the direct result, they won’t get it.”

Students reported that turning off lights, keeping thermostats at a constant temperature, shutting down computers, and using CFL light bulbs (which are free in the Usdan computer store) are all effective means of cutting down their energy consumption.

While the results from the whole year have yet to be determined—only two month’s worth of utility bills have been recorded and only recently has it become necessary to substantially use heat—the competition is making headway in cutting general consumption.

“The hope is to get the numbers down a lot further,” Petersen said.

In a similar vein to the Do It In The Dark Competition, the Environmental Organizer’s Network (EON) is working on several plans to make students more environmentally aware and efficient.

“EON is doing a ton of other things, from landscape changes on campus to getting ’no blow zones’—so instead of having lawnmowers we have flowers—to compost and waste reduction,” Petersen said.

Among all these efforts, the Do It In The Dark competition has proven to be one of the most effective and promising means of promoting energy consumption.

“The program is very successful,” Staye said. “The larger goal is just to change the attitudes of culture, to make people more aware of their impact on the environment. Everyone has a role in that.”