Special Report: Improving energy efficiency at Luther College--one light bulb at a time!

Luther students Sophia Ristau and Christina Hammerstrom (Photos by Stratis Giannakouros)

 Luther College has set a goal of reducing its carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2015.  The college is now at a 40 percent reduction.

In order to reach that goal by next year, the college has contracted with Michaels Energy to conduct a campus wide room by room study of lighting, heating and cooling systems.  Luther has trained 14 students to go room by room in every campus building--some 1,400,000 square feet of space in all--to do a campus audit.

Luther College's Stratis Giannakouros, the Assistant Director of the Center for Sustainable Communities, calls them "lighting opportunities."  For instance, some lights on campus run 24 hours a day, seven days a week--even during daytime.  Other lights are oriented perpendicularly to windows, rather than parallel, making it harder to turn off some lights when not all lights are needed.  A number of light switches also have more than on/off settings, allowing for reduced lighting that still would be adequate.

The Luther students carry lumen meters and iPads with them as they go room-to-room.  Luther religion professor Jim Martin-Schramm, who coordinates the Energy and Climate Program for the Center for Sustainable Communities, says the work probably will run well into the summer, but "We think we could save a lot of money."

Giannakouros says that's just one of the benefits from the new audits.  Luther decided to train its own students to do the surveying, rather than having Michaels Energy doing the surveys, because of the educational component of doing the surveys.  Giannakouros says the students "Are learning to become auditors."

The students are in constant contact with Michaels Energy, so they can get immediate feedback on what they discover during the audits.  That has
Giannakouros and Martin-Schramm feeling optimistic.  Says Martin-Schramm, "We think we can hit 50 percent."
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This hallway has south-facing windows--but lights remain on during the day (Photo by decorahnews.com's Paul Scott)