Holiday Heat Reduction Initiative

In accordance with Administrative Policy AD64, each year OPP initiates a program to reduce temperatures over the Winter Holiday and Semester Break. The initiative is backed by the University's President's Council. Temperatures in all University non-critical facilities will be reduced to conserve energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and generate savings for the University.  Over the past 25 years, the University has averaged over $200,000 and 12,000 MMBTUs per year in savings. Follow the links below for more information.

Facility Automation Services coordinates the temperature reductions over the Holiday/Semester Break period with the Facility Coordinators each year. Comments or questions about how cooler temperatures will affect your research should be directed to your Facility Coordinator.

President Barron announced in October 2014 that Penn State had committed whole-heartedly to the Department of Energy's Better Buildings Challenge whereby Penn State committed to reducing energy usage by 20 percent over the next 10 years. The Holiday Heat Reduction initiative helps the University meet that commitment. The Office of Physical Plant has also set stringent greenhouse gas reduction goals, whereby PSU will reduce by 35 percent 2005 values by 2020. More information on how the University is doing in that regard is available on the Energy Website.

Documents/Links

Holiday Heat Reduction Memo (pdf) 11/20
Annual Savings (pdf) Coming Soon...
Penn State Energy Reduction Target (pdf)
Greenhouse Gas Reduction (pdf)
UP Purchased Energy (pdf)
UP BTU vs. SF (pdf)
Energy Website