Even though summer is here, Ohio State is still bustling. Even when most of the buildings and facilities are closed, one is still able to see that many remain lit after the doors are locked for the night.
The university spends about $18 million a year for electricity and for the 2006 fiscal year it was charged about 5 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity, said Ross Parkman, director of Facilities Operations and Development.
Parkman and others say keeping the campus lit serves a purpose.
Bob Carruth, manager of Utilities Services, said there are many different reasons for the constant lighting, such as safety concerns in regards to emergency access to buildings for police and easy access for the janitorial staff and building workers.
“Many of our buildings are set up for 24-hour use,” Parkman said. “A variety of uses for our buildings keeps the lights on 24-hours a day.”
Determining which lights stay on depends on the way the lighting controls are handled in each individual building.
Many of the newer buildings have automatic light controls, as opposed to the manual controls found in older buildings.
Keeping the lights on might be useful at times, but often causes a problem when it comes to the cost of electricity, Parkman said.
“Energy costs are rising,” he said. “There is discussion now about installing occupancy sensors in all the buildings to cut lights on and off automatically.”
Installing occupancy sensors will be expensive but necessary to save on energy costs, Parkman said.
“It’s a 24-hour-a-day world these days,” he said. “We keep the lights on so people can work whenever they want to. It’s about flexibility for our customers.”
