Survey Shows Students Charge Their Phones Too Long and Waste Energy
We’d like to think that college students are very savvy about being energy efficient, but a survey done at North Georgia College and State University showed “that most students were not as environmentally aware as they could be, reflecting complacent attitudes about sustainability,” according to a story in the school’s online student newspaper.
As part of an environmental science class, students conducted various surveys on campus.
One survey looked at the use of cell phone chargers. While it takes less than two hours on average to charge a cell phone, most students will leave their chargers plugged in for as long as 13 hours or the whole day, the survey found.
Leaving the charger plugged in not only wastes energy, it shortens the life of the charger and costs money. While that might be only pennies a day, over the course of months, it would add up. Since 49% of the students surveyed pay their own bills, you’d think this revelation would send penny-pinching students into a tizzy.
Unfortunately, most students said they didn’t care that their phone chargers were wasting energy.
Another student survey looked at energy use and energy saving as it pertained to home appliances. The results found that 88% of students leave appliances plugged in constantly, with the average student using 22 to 24 electrical outlets on a given day for all their appliances.
When asked if they used an energy efficient light bulb, 80% of students reported they did not.
On the brighter side, 59% of students surveyed said their refrigerator was energy efficient.
“The purpose of this project was to show how little steps of sustainability go a long way,” said Dr. Nancy Dalman, who teaches the class that conducted the surveys. “The more we put the message out there, I hope, the more we make people aware, and with knowledge, can come some action,” she said.
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