New York University’s residence hall energy reduction challenge, NYUnplugged, is taking place beginning Monday, April 15, 2013 and ends on Monday April, 22, 2013, in conjunction with NYU’s celebration of “Earth Week 2013. Established through a Sustainability Task Force Green Grant in 2008, “NYUnplugged” was conceived of by Adam Brock, a student at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study.

NYU Residence Halls Unplug for Energy Reduction Competition, April 15-22, 2013
Competition Focuses on “Vampire Loads” and Encourages Residence Halls to “Switch Off” for the Environment

This spring’s NYUnplugged competition will focus on educating the NYU community about “vampire power,” also known as stand-by power or “phantom load.  This refers to the electricity that is used by home electronics and appliances when they seem “off” or in standby mode.

“Many appliances continue to draw a small amount of power when they are switched off,” said Ozgem Ornektekin, director of the NYU Office of Sustainability. “These "phantom" loads occur in most appliances that use electricity, such as cell phone & laptop chargers, DVD players, televisions, stereo, computers, game consoles and kitchen appliances. This can be avoided by unplugging the appliance or using a power strip and using the switch on the power strip to cut all power to the appliance,” she added.

The contest awards NYU apparel for all students at the residence hall that lowers its electricity use by the greatest percentage against a baseline of three year historical usage for the same week.  NYU’s Office of Sustainability is helping students find new and creative ways to conserve energy, as well as gain a deeper understanding of energy challenges and simple ways to conserve.  Daily results of the challenge are tracked online and available for viewing at NYU’s building dashboard site.  The ultimate goal is that as students compete to conserve the most energy, they will change their consumption habits and re-train themselves to be smarter energy users.

“We are very excited to have NYUnplugged running off of live streaming data from each building,” says Ornektekin.  “This makes the results of the competition more poignant and allows participants to more clearly see how they directly impact NYU’s energy consumption."

For more information about NYUnplugged 2013, please contact Christopher James at 212.998.6876 or christopher.james@nyu.edu

For more information on the NYU Office of Sustainability, please visit www.nyu.edu/sustainability

Press Contact

Christopher James
Christopher James
(212) 998-6876