A facility manager at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., marks an energy awareness sticker placed on a computer monitor April 21, 2011. The stickers are meant to bring awareness to the average user about just how much turning on that light switch or computer monitor can cost each day or throughout the course of a year. (U.S. Air Force photo)
by Bekah Clark
375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
4/25/2011 - SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFNS) -- When the members of the Scott Energy Conversation wanted to make the ideas of energy conservation and awareness "stick" they decided to get literal.
The group created small, 1.5-inch diameter circular stickers to place on energy-consuming items such a computer monitors, light switches and coffee pots. Using a handheld wattmeter, a calculator and a marking pen to write the hourly or daily energy use cost directly on the sticker, facility managers or anyone can quickly communicate the real cost of an energy-use decision.
"The stickers are meant to bring awareness to the average user about just how much turning on that light switch or computer monitors, for example, can cost each day or throughout the course of a year," said Col. Michael Hornitschek, the 375th Air Mobility Wing commander. "Obviously, these are things that are necessary in our day-to-day jobs, but we often forget to turn them off when they're not in use. It's this wasteful expense and unnecessary energy-generating pollution that we hope the stickers help curb."
The stickers were placed first in the 375th AMW headquarters building earlier this year and the members of the SEC hope to see them around the wing and around Scott AFB in the coming months. The stickers look like a penny with a blank line where a person can place the cost per hour, day, month or other desired time span for each piece of equipment.
"It's not just about putting stickers on energy consuming pieces of equipment," said Elizabeth Toftemark, the 375th Civil Engineer Squadron base energy manager, "It's about making people think about where and how they can do their part to lower the base's monthly energy bill."
The base pays about $600,000 each month in energy costs.
The stickers use an adhesive that makes them easily removable, which is well suited for walls and pieces of equipment.
Comments
4/26/2011 9:30:21 AM ET Saving energy and money is the duty of all governmental employees but symbolic gestures like this one are examples of political correctness that is pervasive in our society. It likely cost many manhours to design and develop this sticker and more to promote it. As this effort takes place, hundreds thousands of dollars is mispent on hammers and toilet seats. The idea saving money and energy is sound, the effort is symbolic at best.
