Various measures to reduce our electricity consumption have been put in place at EPFL.

Existing measures

• The heating has been turned down to 20°C in all rooms
• The hot water has been turned off in the handful of restrooms where it was still available
• Inside and outside lighting on campus has been reduced
• The voltage in the medium/high-voltage substations has been lowered; this measure, implemented with the support of the Distributed Electrical Systems Laboratory, immediately cut our power consumption by over 2%
• All illuminated logos and advertising signs on campus have been permanently turned off

New measures being introduced

• Ventilation and temperature levels will be optimized based on whether the building is being used, where possible
• The hot water is being turned off in cleaning rooms
• Building lights are being replaced by LED lighting connected to motion detectors

While these measures will reduce our campus’s energy consumption over the long term, it’s difficult at this stage to accurately quantify the energy savings. To that end, we are developing a monitoring system so that we can track the School’s energy use.