May 1, 2019, by sustainablenottingham
On standby
Energy Manager Bryony Attenborough shares some insight on joining the University of Nottingham
I am married to the long suffering Roger (who likes to leave all the lights on in the house, much to my annoyance), have one daughter Lauren, a West Highland Terrier called Hamish and two rabbits Narla and Alba. I have lived and worked my whole life in Nottingham, I joined the University as Energy Manager in October 2018, but have been working in the energy industry for the past 25 years.
I landed with a bit of a bump finding that University of Nottingham wasn’t quite as simple as other places I had worked, with numerous buildings and nearly 260 energy supplies to look after. I’ve spent time strolling round the campuses, but don’t think I’ll ever be able to find my way without a SatNav!!
Saving energy
Do you or colleagues leave electrical items including PC monitors or TVs ‘on standby’?
If you see lights on in an empty room, would you turn them off if possible?
Would you shut windows and doors to keep the heat in?
There is a significant challenge to reduce the University’s energy consumption and I must say that after doing this job for so long, it’s kind of a ‘guilty pleasure‘ of mine to identify where energy is being misused or wasted and trying to find a way to resolve it.
I can’t do my job without everyone doing their bit to identify and reduce wasted energy, or even come up with suggestions for how we can do things better. I am looking at current processes and trying to get people out of the ‘this is the way it’s always been done’ mind set. I like to think I get on with people and am quite happy to stop and chat, it sometimes helps to get my message across so.…HELLO, this is a new day in Energy Management for University of Nottingham!
Contact: bw-energy@nottingham.ac.uk
I think that one of the simplest ways of saving electrical energy is to have more than one light switch in a room so that rows of lights next to windows can be witched off. There are probably hundreds off rooms at the university with one light switch.