No, The Big Turnoff is not the title of Jim Ballard's new dating guide, it's an EnergyWise initiative in the MELG building to promote energy conservation by turning off unused lights.

Research indicates that up to 10% of the electricity usage in a building this size goes to lighting up unoccupied spaces throughout the day and after people go home for the night.

Some buildings implement devices known as occupancy sensors to detect when people enter and exit a room and automatically turn lights on and off accordingly. EnergyWise Director, Scott Little says, "Why not use the 75 'occupancy sensors' we already employ in this building? If you leave a room and there's no one behind you, flip off the light."

Each standard fluorescent light fixture in the building costs approximately 8 cents per day to operate at today’s rate. Doesn’t seem like much until we begin to add up the amount of light fixtures in the building. Look around you and you’ll notice that you can contribute to our building’s program significantly by doing something you would do at home automatically: turn off the lights when you leave the room.

We often think of electricity as “clean” energy because we don’t see pollution generated when we use it. It doesn’t smell or smoke or appear “dirty.” But did you know that almost all of the electricity in Michigan is generated from some sort of fossil fuel. Over 85% of it, in fact, comes from burning coal. So, reducing our electricity usage at work and home has a big impact on reducing harmful emissions into the air. This contributes to a cleaner healthier environment for everyone.

Come on! Turn it off, Be Energy Wise!

MELG-wide, our electric costs rose slightly in 2007, but our usage dropped by almost 3%. Our building spends nearly $23,000 annually for electricity. Electricity costs continue to rise making reducing our usage even more important.

Check out the 2 graphs below to compare the electricity usage between the 4 office suites (top = 2006 data, bottom = 2007).