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Hanley Sustainability Institute

Energy GPA

 

Energy GPA is a student-run program created from a student, faculty, and staff collaboration to reduce carbon emissions from residential energy use. The Energy GPA Program is operated by the Campus Energy Team out of the Hanley Sustainability Institute. Each month, the team compiles electricity and gas data for each house in the student neighborhood. At the University of Dayton, utility costs are wrapped into total housing cost, so the mission of this program is to let students know how much energy they have used in a month as well as how much is “normal” to use in that specific month. The monthly Energy GPA Program results are regularly posted to the Energy GPA Dashboard for students to view their own grades along with their neighbors’ grades.

This program paves the way to present actionable ways students can decrease the amount of energy they use so in return they are better prepared to save energy at UD now and in the future when they pay for their energy use in their own homes.

UD has committed to decreasing its energy consumption as a way to decrease carbon emissions, and a large part of campus energy usage is in residential living. We all want to feel comfortable in our homes, but sometimes we tend to overconsume energy without thinking about it! This program is to help our students become aware of their energy usage, so we can combat the ongoing climate crisis together and be good stewards of the environment.

Energy GPA Program FAQs

A: There are currently 262 houses in the program.

A: No, the program does not affect housing costs or academic GPA.

A: Each university owned house is individually metered for both gas and electricity. This data is sent to UD from our gas and electric suppliers on a monthly basis and then passed down to the Campus Energy Team.

A: The housing characteristics we take into consideration to calculate your Energy GPA are number of beds per house, the rated energy use of UD-issued appliances, house geometry and insulation, Dayton, Ohio weather patterns, and your residence’s historical energy usage. Additional appliances and devices that you bring from home and are not UD-issued are not included in our calculations.

A: The team uses a machine learning model to predict how much energy your house should have used for the month. The predicted usage is then compared to how much energy you actually used which comes straight from your energy bills. Using less electricity and gas than predicted leads to a better grade while using more energy than predicted leads to a worse grade.

A: New grades will be released on the Energy GPA Dashboard on the 15th of every month. Grades released on the 15th will reflect the energy usage during the month prior. For example, grades released on February 15th would be calculated based on January energy usage.

Energy GPA Dashboard Website FAQs

A: To see your grades and energy usage, you can pan through the interactive map to find your house or use the search capabilities signified by the magnifying glass in the top right corner of the map to search for an address. Once you have found your home on the map, you can click on the colored dot (which corresponds to the grade you have received) to see your grades and energy usage.

A: There are two different ways to view the top performing houses. The first way is to tab over from the “In Map View” widget, directly to the right of the map, and the top 10 overall best performing houses for the current month will be revealed. You can click on these houses view their grades and energy usage on the map as shown below. 
Energy GPA Dashboard thumbnail
Secondly, to see the top performing houses of the month for electric and gas usage separately, use the widget shown below to tab between the top 10 houses for electricity usage and the top 10 for gas usage on campus.
Energy GPA Dashboard best houses graph

A: Using the widgets shown below on the dashboard, users can tab through and view the number of A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s, and F’s were given out during the current month.
Energy GPA Dashboard grades example

A: While viewing the widget that shows the total CO2 production by the student neighborhood during the current month, tab over to see informational equivalents such as how many times you could charge your phone with that amount of carbon production and more! This will allow you to better understand just how much carbon is produced during a single month on campus just from our residential properties.
Energy GPA Dashboard stats combined

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Hanley Sustainability Institute

Fitz Hall
300 College Park
Dayton, Ohio 45469 - 2950
937-229-3295
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