Dear members of the EPFL community,

The Campus Energy Committee (CECOM) is preparing our campuses for various energy-shortage scenarios, and your participation is crucial to this process.

EPFL has quickly implemented a series of measures aimed at reducing our electricity use. These now-permanent measures will not affect our academic activities. And we can each further reduce our School’s energy footprint in a number of ways – including by following the recommendations below.

Steps to be taken during the year-end break

The EPFL Direction has decided not to shut down the School between Christmas and New Year’s. But it strongly encourages you to close local premises and facilities wherever possible.

The following measures will apply to the entire School during the year-end break:

• The lighting in buildings will be in weekend mode
• The heating will be turned down 
• Ventilation in the lecture halls will be turned off
• We have ensured that these measures will not interfere with our students’ ability to study comfortably on campus.

Here are some general tips on how to reduce our everyday energy use:

• Completely turn off equipment (as opposed to leaving it in standby mode) whenever possible
• Unplug charging cables, coffee machines, power strips, etc.
• Close blinds whenever possible to keep in the heat
• In labs, lower the sash in fume hoods (a closed fume hood uses around one-third as much power as an open one)
• Turn off lights, except where motion detectors are used

Defrost and share refrigerators

Refrigerators and freezers that have not been defrosted consume much more power. So take a moment to defrost them – that will also free up space inside them. And be sure to turn off any that aren’t being used. 

Recommended temperature settings:

Freezers

• –18°C (up from –20°C)
• –78°C (up from –80°C)

Refrigerators

• 6°C 

You can learn about all of EPFL’s energy-saving measures on our webpage: campus-energy.epfl.ch.

We’d like to thank everyone who uses our campuses for their cooperation, and all the staff members involved in designing and implementing these measures.

If you have any questions, please send them to: campus-energy@epfl.ch. 

In contrast to the chilliness implied by these measures, we’d like to wish you a warm holiday season.

Matthias Gäumann & Jan S. Hesthaven
Co-chairmen of the committee