How Much Can a Campus Save on Utility Bills by Turning a 5-Workday Week Into a 4­Workday Week

Abstract

The recent budget cuts campaign mandated by the governor's office had all state agencies in Texas looking for ways to reduce revenue spending. One of the cost savings opportunities perceived by many university officials is to convert a typical 5-workday week into a 4- workday week (e.g., Monday to Thursday) with 10 working hours each day during the universities summer session. The potential savings come from the fact that the universities can be partially shut down during the prolonged weekends (Friday to Sunday). It is believed that the savings from partially shutting down an extra workday is much more significant than the marginal energy increase caused by the extended working hours during workdays. This paper analyzes the potential energy cost savings of this approach for three real cases. The savings can be largely estimated by comparing whole-campus electricity consumptions between typical weekdays and weekends (or holidays). Energy overheads caused by the extended working hours (two more hours per working day) were also estimated. A limited shutdown scenario (similar to a typical weekend schedule) and a more aggressive shutdown scenario (similar to a typical holiday schedule) during the weekend periods are presented. The potential savings opportunities were from 0.32% to 1.53% of the annual electricity bills for different universities.