In December, the university saved 100,000 cubic metres of gas. This is the same amount a thousand households use on average in a month.
Buildings’ opening hours have been reduced, and some buildings are shut altogether. ‘Comfort times’ were invented to prevent buildings from being heated when there were no people inside. The average temperature was changed to 19 degrees Celsius.
These are some examples of the action the university has taken the past few weeks in an effort to curb its energy expenditures. It had to, because things weren’t looking good: the UG is likely to pay 53 million euros for power, instead of its usual 8 million.
Christmas break
How much the Christmas break will count towards the uni’s efforts – the UG was closed during the last week in December – they don’t know. ‘Our calculations are based on the entire month of December’, says UG spokesperson Elies Kouwenhoven.
The university also doesn’t know how much money it saved. ‘But considering the average household uses 1,200 cubic metres a year, we saved approximately a thousand households’ worth.’
Mistake
The university is happy with the first results and hopes to continue in this vein. However, to err is human: in the first week of January, a sharp employee noticed the lights and screens were on in the Linnaeusborg, even though the building was closed.
‘That was a mistake’, says Kouwenhoven. ‘Someone forgot to switch off the lights and screens.’