The January 2012 issue of UCLA Magazine includes a commendable article (“Light It Up”) that discusses “solar power in sun-drenched Los Angeles.” In the article, UCLA gets a complimentary pat on the back for a few solar and sustainability initiatives currently underway.
But actions speak louder than words and, in reality, UCLA’s sustainability efforts that relate to energy use on campus are noticeably insufficient.
On numerous occasions my colleague Professor Michael Jura and I have independently and privately alerted UCLA officials at UCLA Facilities Management and the UCLA Sustainability Committee to various examples of campus energy waste. But years have passed and little has changed.
The most visible sign of energy waste is lights uselessly ablaze 24/7, 365 days a year, in many campus buildings. This has been going on for many years, as have excuses from UCLA Facilities or from the UCLA Sustainability Committee.
Excuses I recall include: Electricity consumes less energy than heating; custodians work until late and it is their job to turn off lights when they are done; and people sometimes move in or work at odd hours, so hall lights need to be on.
On Christmas Eve, I walked much of South Campus between midnight and 1 a.m. and then again on the evening of Dec. 27 at about the same time. On both nights, lights were ablaze in large portions of various buildings that front onto or are near Charles E. Young Drive, including the Terasaki Life Sciences Building, the School of Dentistry Clinics, the Biomedical Sciences Research Building, the Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center, the Neuroscience Research Building and the California NanoSystems Institute.
Incredibly, except the dental clinics, all of these buildings are new. Indeed, on average, newer buildings on campus appear to be more wasteful of electricity than older ones.
How can this possibly be in this day and age of energy awareness? Whoever approved the Terasaki building, dedicated in 2010, deserves a grade of “F” in sustainability. Who allows such buildings to be built at UCLA? Where does the buck stop?
Even if heating and cooling of buildings might use more energy than lighting, the latter is far more obvious to outsiders; lights needlessly on 24/7 set a lousy example for our students and others who pass through our campus.
Many potential energy-saving improvements come quickly to mind. Motion sensors in hallways, stairwells and offices should be mandatory for lighting for new campus buildings.
The Rochester Institute of Technology’s fall/winter 2012 report notes that sensor technology already exists to automatically control heating or air conditioning, depending on whether a person is in a room.
Older campus buildings should be retrofitted with motion sensors or, should that not be possible for some reason, at least with a capability (automatic or human controlled) for a majority of hall lights to be turned off at times of low building occupancy.
Temperatures in most buildings could be allowed to float, say from the high 60s in the winter to the high 70s in the summer; it is not necessary to have uniform building temperatures throughout the year.
Appropriate persons (perhaps students) could be paid to monitor campus buildings in the evening to turn off lights.
Article by Ben Zuckerman, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy.