Challenge Blog 11 – Energy Conservation

First we were challenged to go 24 hours without using power in our dorm rooms. I thought that this would be pretty easy for me but I knew that I was going to run into some difficulties. For the most part, I generally try to not use a lot of electricity. I keep my lights off as much as possible and I only charge my electronics when needed and only until they are at 100% and then I unplug them. From the moment I woke up to the moment I got back to my dorm room after dinner, it was pretty easy for me not to use any electricity in my dorm room. First of all, it was during the day so I had daylight to light up my room so I could see everything. Second of all, I was not in my dorm room for most of the day. Once I got back from dinner is when I ran into most of the problems. It was nighttime so I could not use natural light to light up my room. Also, when I went to the bathroom and went to take a shower, I could not see anything since we do not have any windows in our bathroom. If we did have a window in our bathroom, it would be easier because I could shower during the day and use the natural light to see. If we were allowed to have candles in our room, I would have used candles to help light up my dorm room. I think that this part of the challenge was a slight success for me. I was mostly able to go 24 without using power in my dorm room.

We were also asked to identify two ways that we can change our habits to conserve energy while at UK. Lauren, my roommate, and I live at the end of the hallway so we have a window in our common area of our dorm room. We normally have the blinds closed on that window so we normally have to have the lights on in our common area. One thing that we can do to change our habits to conserve energy while at UK is that we should keep the blinds open more often so that we can take advantage of the natural light that the window can bring in so we do not always have to have the lights on in our common area. Another thing that we can do to change our habits to conserve energy while at UK is to not keep our laptops and cell phones plugged in overnight. I normally do not charge my electronics overnight but there are those nights that I sometimes do. Electronics are only meant to stay on their chargers until the power reaches 100%. If electronics stay on their chargers after they are at 100%, it is just wasting energy. These are just a few different ways that we can conserve energy while at UK but there are always more ways we can do so. We should also carry these habits home with us for the summer so we can also conserve energy while living at home.