During the summer of 2024, the Office of Information Technology worked to make our Potsdam campus’ classrooms more energy efficient. According to Dylan Crawford, Audio-Visual Systems Engineer with OIT, 40 classrooms between the Hill and Downtown Campus were outfitted with inactivity timers for projectors.
“What we did was implement an inactivity timer that is triggered by the controller’s inactivity time and if the projector is on. We settled on 4 hours in order to accommodate the longer classes,” shared Crawford. OIT also eliminated other pieces of technology no longer used in classrooms that were consuming unnecessary power. During the next break, OIT plans to install the timer in classrooms with newer control systems.
To keep track of energy efficiency improvements, OIT will be comparing the lamp hours of all the outfitted projectors at the end of the Fall 2024 semester with the count taken last year. “Another project we have been working on is switching out bulb projectors around campus with laser projectors, which don’t require a bulb (which require special disposal) and consume less power than traditional projectors,” added Crawford.
The Institute for a Sustainable Environment is working to feature sustainability initiatives, like OIT’s efforts, taking place on campus. At Clarkson, we are committed to including sustainability in everything we do. If you have a project, story, or other sustainability work you’d like to share, please email Evelyn (laferrep@clarkson.edu).