This past Wednesday, the 2013 Green Cup Challenge began. With dorms trying to reduce their electricity use as much as possible, students are turning off their lights, unplugging their chargers, and using other creative energy saving solutions.

The annual competition is among dorms on campus, as well as among schools across the the country. While it is important for individual dorms to save as much electricity as possible, the ultimate goal is to reduce Williston’s electricity as much as possible.

Dorms will be scored based on how much they can decrease their kilowatt hour usage. A watt is a measure of power(joules/second). A kilowatt is one thousand watts. A kilowatt hour(kWh) is equal to an hour of continuous power consumption of 1,000 watts. Dorms will attempt to decrease their electricity by the biggest percentage possible. Because dorms will be scored based on their percent decrease, students in the already energy efficient 194 Main Street will have a tough time reducing their energy consumption.

Dorm proctors have taken a lead in reducing energy use. In the John Wright dorm students have begun sharing a fridge instead of using multiple fridges. Because these appliances use so much electricity and are always turned on, the girls in John Wright will be able to greatly reduce their electricity usage. When my We The People team met with our teacher last week in Logan, I learned students  in Logan House planned to turn off the lights in all of their rooms and spend study hall doing homework in the common room.

The winning dorm gets a party of their choice: Sushi, Chinese, the Hangar, etc. and their dorm name on an annual plaque. As soon as we collect and compile the data from the meters this week, we will post the results from the first week of the competition. The competition ends on February 15.