This Friday, residents of Nicolson 5.5 and 6 won themselves free mugs and an ice cream party with President Michael Roth by placing first in Wesleyan’s Energy Saving Competition.

The contest, started by Bingxin Wu ’13 of the University’s Environmental Organizers Network (EON), represented an effort to cut down on University students’ energy consumption by increasing awareness on campus.

“I noticed that there were new energy monitors being installed in dorms, and I thought we should do something to get people to be familiar with these energy monitors to monitor their own behavior accordingly,” Wu said. “[Our efforts were also] based off of a research paper about energy accommodation at Oberlin [College]. They had an online feedback system and the research showed that this kind of information combined with certain incentives would encourage people to conserve.”

In order to ensure equal footing for all dorms, Peter Staye, who is the Associate Director of Utilities Management for Physical Plant, measured each dorm’s initial energy usage to establish a baseline. He then compared this number each dorm’s energy usage during the competition period which lasted from April 1 to April 15, to determine the change in energy consumption. Other calculations were made to ensure comparability across dorms.

“We measure the energy consumption in terms of BTU [British Thermal Unit], which converts electricity and hot water into one unit,” Wu said. “Once we have that number for a dorm, we divide it by the square feet of the dorm and then we divide that by the heating degree days, which is the difference between the lowest temperature and 65. The rationale behind this is we are trying to control for area and temperature [in different dorms].”

Nicolsons 5.5 and 6 finished the competition with a 159.2 percent reduction from their baseline, while Butterfield A finished in second place with a 43.8 percent reduction. Although some students said that their daily activities were unchanged by the contest, others described the energy usage competition as an effective way to jump-start their sustainability efforts.

“They turned off the heat, which definitely affected our energy usage,” said Shannon Welch ’14, a resident of Nicolson 6. “Personally, I took shorter showers, worked more by sunlight, and kept my overhead light off to save energy. Also, I remembered to unplug my chargers by putting them all on a power strip.”

Overall, Wu said that Wesleyan’s enthusiastic attitude toward conservation points to a bright future of increased energy awareness.

“I think that the competition was a success in general because the aggregate reduction was 26.6 percent,” Wu said. “This is a sign that we could do similar things in future semesters and even extend the competition period. This was just a trial to dip our feet in the water.”