The Effects of Energy Efficient Behavior Reminders on Electricity Conservation in a New York Public High School

Abstract

Excessive electricity consumption negatively affects the economic growth of developing countries, and is a major cause of carbon emissions throughout the globe. The objective of this study is to investigate how the use of energy-efficient behavior reminders affects electricity conservation in a New York City Public High School. In this experiment, during the first 10 days, custodians were not reminded to turn off lights. From Day 11-20, reminders were sent to custodians every Monday and Friday to turn off the light. During Days 21-30, reminders were sent every day to remind custodians to turn off the lights. The results showed daily reminders had a significant decrease in electricity consumption compared to when no reminders were sent. Still, there was no significant difference between the percentage of lights being on, making it difficult to confirm if the custodians followed the reminders. The reminder of turning off lights was not a major source of electricity consumption and other factors might have consumed a larger portion of electricity. More schools should be studied to validate the results. Future studies/research can test the effects of energy-saving behavior reminders on electricity conservation from turning off electronic devices, such as smart boards or computers, at the end of the day or analyze custodian behaviors more precisely.

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