OUR OPINION: These new power meters can push students to save more energy.

The Sustainability Commission is working on a proposal for replacing current power meters with real-time meters in buildings on campus.

The meters would be an upgrade from existing monitors, which technicians must come out to manually read.

This initiative ties in with the University’s “Year of Energy,” and both students and administrators should support this program.

Anup Engineer, junior in business and student initatives coordinator on the Sustainability Commission, said the real-time power meters are a cost-effective way to reduce energy usage and increase awareness about energy efficiency.

Engineer said the meters give people a way to put a number on how much energy they use without going into discussions about complex measures of power usage.

Still, the upgrade will be expensive — on old buildings, Jay Dawkins, student body president, said replacing the existing meters could cost about $2000 for parts and several thousand more to install.

The cost can be worth it, but it needs a strong educational campaign to complement it. It’s one thing for students to be able to see how much energy they are using — it’s another for students to be able to translate their behaviors into a specific amount of energy savings.

Posting the number of kilowatt-hours a building uses is a start, but students need more information if they are going to make an informed decision about how to save power. Engineer said the Sustainability Commission is looking to display the real-time power meters on some of the LCD televisions in buildings like D.H. Hill.

This information should be accompanied by information about how much power one simple action can save. Yes, reducing the number of kilowatt-hours used is good, but students will be more likely to make an effort to conserve energy if they have an idea of how much power they can save by turning off lights or reducing the brightness on computer monitors.

Engineer said the commission is looking for funding for this program, from both on-campus sources and third-party grants.

Third-party grants are welcome, but if the University wishes to live up to its proposed “Year of Energy,” it should consider funding this program. The costs may seem expensive now, but the energy it can save will more than pay for it.