Naked Science Forum
General Discussion & Feedback => Radio Show & Podcast Feedback => Topic started by: thedoc on 18/11/2014 18:48:01
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UK University energy bills are more than £400 million per year. Cambridge University is running 'Switch off Week' to cut its costs...
Read a transcript of the interview by clicking here (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/interviews/interview/1001018/)
or [chapter podcast=1000915 track=14.11.18/Naked_Scientists_Show_14.11.18_1002968.mp3](https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenakedscientists.com%2FHTML%2Ftypo3conf%2Fext%2Fnaksci_podcast%2Fgnome-settings-sound.gif&hash=f2b0d108dc173aeaa367f8db2e2171bd) Listen to it now[/chapter] or [download as MP3] (http://nakeddiscovery.com/downloads/split_individual/14.11.18/Naked_Scientists_Show_14.11.18_1002968.mp3)
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Cambridge University consists of about 50,000 people: students, academic staff, college and laboratory staff, visiting academics and contractors. Energy cost of £1800 per hour equates to about 4p/hour per person, or about 500 watts (assuming an equal mix of gas and electricity). That is about one tenth of the average energy consumption per capita for the UK, and one third of the world average. Pretty economical when you consider the age of the some of the buildings and the need to keep laboratories running with freezers, workshop machinery, etc.
Of course some of the light is supplied by candles, and I always feel a pang of guilt at the carbon footprint of choral evensong followed by dinner at High Table, but if it hadn't been for climate change, Cambridge would still be a tropical swamp, a glacier, or a Roman vineyard, depending on how far back you look.
The cost of installing one occupancy sensor in an office is equivalent to lighting the office for 600 years with LED lamps.
I sense some smart salesmanship, and a remarkable lapse at the home of physics.
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Alan, you are SUCH a cynic; but very funny into the bargain...!
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...the very essence of salesmanship.