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Why the Christmas Switch Off?

Whilst it seems obvious that ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ saves energy over the Christmas period- you’d be surprised at the number of appliances which get left on without your help. This year thanks to you, our Green Champions and ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳’s Estates team we managed to switch off more equipment than ever. From chillers, to heating, ventilation and lab equipment, to lights, desktops and kitchen equipment, you name it – we switched it off!

What was the impact?

Comparing ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳'s energy use over the holiday period with our normal operations, you helped save a huge 899,284 kWh of energy* (9% more than last year). The gas we saved could be used to heat up over 26 million mince pies!*

Who won?

Congratulations to theÌýInstitute of Archaeology for beating the Division of Psychiatry – a team which has been hogging the top spot for the past 3 years, and winning the Christmas Switch Off!ÌýThis is a testimony to the work of their Green Champions who achieved an Excellence Award at the ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ Sustainability Awards 2018 for making their labs more sustainable.

Well done also to ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ Estates, for achieving second place and to Clinical Trials and Methodology for coming third! Thank you to everyone who took part.

Who saved the most energy?

There was also a prize this year for the department or hall of residence which saved the largest amount of energy. Congratulations toÌýBartlett School of ArchitectureÌýfor saving the most with a 64% reduction! The top 10 energy savers over the closure were:

Well done to everyone who saved energy. You can find out your buildings energy use hour by hourÌý.

What now?

If we switched off like this every weekend, ×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ could reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by around 2,200 tonnes and save nearly £500,000 on its energy bill every year.

We know that for some appliances and equipment, it wouldn't be practical to switch off for such a short period, but hope these large savings highlight the impact we can all make through simple changes to behaviour.

Get involved

Become a Green Champion to help your department become more sustainable! For details see our Get Involved page or get in touch.

• *Total energy saved – closure period was 22.12.18– 01.01.19, variance compared to average of preceding 4 weeks (normalised for degree days for heating savings)
• *Electricity saved – average Christmas tree lights consume 1.2kWh in 24 hours
• *Gas saved – warming up 24 mince pies at a time, for 6 minutes in a 2kW gas oven