Simple energy conservation measures such as turning off unneeded lights and lowering the temperatures in buildings after hours have added up to more than a million dollars in savings for Iowa State, say university officials.

Iowa State is close to meeting its goal of saving $1.5 million in energy costs by May 31, surpassing last year’s savings, said Dave Miller, co-chairman for the energy efficiency task force.

“So far, we’ve saved $1.1 million for the current year and we have four more months to make up the difference,” said Miller, director of Facilities, Planning and Management.

Due to budget constraints, the energy savings plan was created in 2001 to save on energy costs. Its goal for the fiscal year 2002, running from June 2001 through May 2002, was to save $1.5 million, Miller said. The total energy saved was just under that amount.

“For all practical purposes, we met our goal,” he said.

Nearly every month of fiscal year 2003 has succeeded savings when compared to the months of fiscal year 2002, Miller said. According to the Facilities Planning and Management Web site at www.fpm.iastate.edu, the plan saved $597,179 in exported steam and $432,592 in electricity by January. The university has saved almost 9 percent in utilities costs, he said.

“Saving almost 9 percent in utility cost is a very big number in energy-saving goals,” Miller said.

Howard Shapiro, co-chairman of the energy task force and vice provost, said this year’s success may be due to mild weather and routine habits of ISU personnel.

“We might take a little credit from the weather, but my guess is cutting back on energy use became more routine,” he said.

As part of the energy savings plan, ISU staff members are encouraged to turn off lights and computers on nights and weekends and to make sure equipment is shut off when not in use.

Turning off an office computer on nights and weekends saves $44 per computer annually, according to the Web site.

The personal convictions of ISU employees contributed to this year’s energy-savings successful so far, he said.

Savings weren’t made because staff were told to use less energy; the energy-savings education only encouraged them.

“It’s those same people that want to recycle at home and save energy at home that have made the personal commitment,” Miller said. “Some didn’t think they could make a difference, but with education they found, like at home, they could make a difference.”

The energy efficiency task force was able to focus on the individuals needs of each building to increase savings this year, he said.

“In the first year, we were trying to make massive changes and because of that we couldn’t make individual changes,” Miller said. “This year we’ve been trying to make things more personal.”

Miller said he talked to individual occupants of campus buildings to find energy-saving possibilities that may have been overlooked in the previous year’s efforts. Individual plans were then made to suit each building and night classes were moved into buildings that are already open for other classes, he said.

General university buildings now have set operating hours to minimize the number of open buildings.

Temperatures in closed buildings are lowered in the winter and set at higher levels in the summer, Miller said.

“To reduce the use of heating and air conditioning, we tried to correlate buildings,” said Clark Thompson, engineer for Facilities Planning and Management. “We’ve tried to concentrate classes on certain floors and certain areas, as opposed to leaving the whole building open when only a part of [it] is being used.”

Students, faculty and staff have not resisted changes in class scheduling and temperature changes, Thompson said.

“We’ve had good participation. It’s been a team effort from all across campus,” he said. “Without it we couldn’t reach our goals.”

Shapiro said a new set of energy-saving recommendations will be brought to the administration within the next month.

Also, investing in improvement of existing buildings, such as changing to more efficient lighting, will be recommended to save even more valuable energy and money.