Walking into associate professor of marketing John Vann's office, the first thing you'll notice is that his overhead lights are off and he has a single lamp with a fluorescent bulb on top of his desk with several mirrors close to the window reflecting sunlight.
Vann is looking for alternative sources of energy much like Ball State University, which has several environmental plans for the coming years.
Part of the energy saving plan is to change lightbulbs on campus, he said.
Jorge Velazco, electrical technician at facilities planning and management, said Ball State uses incandescent, halogen, fluorescent, metal halide and high pressure sodium lamps ranging from 99 cents to 50 cents, all of which use different ranges in lumens per watt.
"Lamps have different uses," he said. "Ranging from theatrical settings for incandescence, where the emphasis is on the compactness of the source of light, to the illumination of broad areas with a diffuse light, say in a library or classroom, where the emphasis is in even light everywhere for reading or taking notes."
However, the goal is to change T8 lamps - the average classroom lamp which has a life expectancy of about 25,000 hours - into less energy consuming lightbulbs and to use incandescent lamps less.
"One area where incandescents still rule is the section of fine arts devoted to the Museum of Art," Velazco said. "Because paintings and other art objects would be damaged by the ultraviolet light which is an inevitable byproduct of fluorescent lamps, the museum only uses incandescent lamps to illuminate their art objects."
Replacing incandescent lamps for fluorescent not only saves energy, but money.
"When I started buying compact fluorescent bulbs they were about $15 per bulb," Vann said. "And now you can get four for about $8, the price has come down dramatically. If you buy a compact fluorescent bulb, it will save you $30 to $50 per bulb over the life of the bulb."
He said other than replacing light bulbs, the university is placing occupancy sensors in buildings and photocopiers with sleep mode to reduce the amount of time energy is used. Some of the buildings where occupancy censors have been installed are the Cooper Science and Woodworth dining area.
Another plan is the reduction of carbon dioxide emission, Vann said.
"President Gora committed Ball State to reducing our carbon dioxide emission down to zero," he said. "The deadline is negotiable but how we get there includes anything that has to do with emissions of carbon, so if we reduce electricity use, we cut back on carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal."
Vann said encouraging students to use bicycles or MITS buses instead of cars and to recycle paper are some things that can be done to start reducing carbon dioxide emission.
From hydroelectric vehicles to the implementation of the new geothermal heating, the university is doing its part to become more environmentally friendly, Vann said.
He said in the past few years the university has continued to reduce energy consumption per square feet, but due to the new construction, most of the square feet free from energy consumption are being taken again.
"It's kind of a dilemma because if you ask someone 'are you doing enough?' the answer has to be 'no' nobody is doing enough, as long as green house gas emissions are going up and not down, nobody is doing enough," he said.
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