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Christmas Switch-Off
Every year, UCL runs a Christmas Switch-off competition to see who can reduce the most energy over the winter break.
27 November 2023
Help UCL reduce energy and win prices by pledging by the 23rd December to switch off this Christmas!
In 2022, 488 pledges resulted in a combined saving of 107 tonnes of carbon – that’s equivalent to planting 1,783 trees!* This saved UCL an impressive £140,023 over the festive period.
It shows small changes in our everyday behaviours, like switching off non-essential equipment can lead to a huge impact.
How to get involved
How to win
Make your switch-off pledge by December 23rd. The department and the accommodation with the highest proportion of pledges will each win £100 prize money. For accommodation, this will be spent on a community-wide event.
Campaign results
- Christmas switch-off 2022
488 pledges resulted in a combined saving of 107 tonnes of carbon – that’s equivalent to planting 1,783 trees!* This saved UCL an incredible £140,023 over the festive period.
Winners
The departmental winners of the 2022/23 Christmas Switch Off were The Ear Institute! They received £100 for their efforts.
The Ear Institute was closely followed by the Institute of Neurology, Careers Team, Division of Psychiatry and Security and Crime Science.Although we’ve mentioned a handful of UCL departments, there were members of staff from a total of 71 departments across the university who took part, without whom we wouldn’t have reached our results. So, thank you all!
A similar message of thanks goes to the many students across UCL who pledged to switch off during the holidays. We gave Keep Cups to the first 100 students who pledged, which can be used at all the UCL cafés where they can receive a discount on all hot drinks.
Saving calculations
- The holiday period was from 23.12.2022 - 03.01.2023.
- Electricity used during the holidays = 2,200,675kWh.
- Savings compared to term time = 555,588kWh.
- Average weekday energy use during term time = 289,096kWh.
- Average weekday energy use during holidays = 222,061kWh.
- Average weekend energy use during term time = 255,217kWh.
- Average weekend energy use during holidays = 217,077kWh.
*On average, one tree can consume approximately 60kg of CO2 from the atmosphere.
> read more Christmas Switch Off 2022 Results: Your Impact!
- Christmas switch-off 2021
200 pledges resulted in a combined saving of 173 tonnes of carbon – that’s equivalent to planting 2,883 trees!* This saved UCL an impressive £114,374 over the festive period.
Winners
- Most pledges - Institute of Neurology and the Department of Mathematics.
- Most energy saved - Bartlett School of Architecture reduced their energy use by 56%.
Saving calculations
- The holiday period was from 23.12.2021 - 03.01.2022.
- Electricity used during the holidays = 5,057,789kWh.
- Savings compared to term time = 816,959kWh.
- Average weekday energy use during term time = 500,240kWh.
- Average weekday energy use during holidays = 435,247kWh.
- Average weekend energy use during term time = 468,207kWh.
- Average weekend energy use during holidays = 393,953kWh.
- Figures based on DEFRA carbon factors.
*On average, one tree can consume approximately 60kg of CO2 from the atmosphere.
> read more Christmas Switch Off 2021 Results: Your Impact!
- Christmas switch-off 2020
The switch-off did not take place due to the COVID pandemic.
- Christmas switch-off 2019
235 pledges resulted in a combined saving of 284 tonnes of carbon – that’s equivalent to planting 4,696 trees!* This saved UCL almost £110,000 over the festive period.
We saved 284 tonnes of carbon - 37 tonnes more than last year - which is enough carbon to fill 63 Olympic-sized swimming pools!
Winners
- 1st - Careers Team;
- 2nd - Division of Psychiatry;
- 3rd - Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering.
Savings calculations
- The holiday period is from 21.12.2019 - 01.01.2020.
- Electricity used during this time = 2,134,419kWh.
- Gas used during this time = 2,128,650kWh.
- The control period is from 05.12.2019 - 19.12.2019.
- Average electricity used during this time = 2,843,116kWh.
- Average gas used during this time = 2,687,055kWh.
- Figures based on DEFRA carbon factors state that consuming 1kWh of electricity produces 0.26kg CO2 and costs £0.13 and consuming 1kWh of gas produces 0.18 kg CO2 and costs £0.03.
*On average, one tree can consume approximately 60kg of CO2 from the atmosphere.
- Christmas switch-off 2018
386 pledges saved almost 900,000kWh – that’s enough electricity to run the lights on a Christmas tree for 1,538 years!* 9% more than last year.
The Switch-Off saved UCL £95k in total and £9.7k on Christmas day!
Winners
- Institute of Archaeology;
- UCL Estates;
- Clinical Trials and Methodology.
Saving calculations
- *Total energy saved – closure period was 22.12.18– 01.01.19, variance compared to average of preceding 4 weeks (normalised for degree days for heating savings).
- *Electricity saved – average Christmas tree lights consume 1.2kWh in 24 hours.
- *Gas saved – warming up 24 mince pies at a time, for 6 minutes in a 2kW gas oven.
> read more The Christmas Switch Off: your impact.
- Christmas switch-off 2017
Over 400 of you pledged, saving almost 823,000 kWh – that’s enough electricity to run the lights on a Christmas tree for 1291 years!*
Comparing UCL's energy use over the holiday period with our normal operations, you helped save a huge 822,534 kWh of energy* (2% more than last year despite the campus growing). The gas we saved could be used to heat up over 24 million mince pies!*
Winners
- Division of Psychiatry - 79 students and staff pledging to Switch Off over the break!
- Geography - saving the most with a 64% reduction!
> read more The Christmas Switch Off: your impact
- Christmas switch-off 2016
Over 100 departments pledged to switch off over the Christmas Closure, thanks to all your efforts we saved enough energy to keep the lights on a Christmas tree running for over 1,800 years!
That's a 17% reduction compared to UCL's usual energy use[1].
The energy saving prevented 2600 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted, which would weigh the equivalent of almost 4,000,000 mince pies!
Winners
- Division of Psychiatry - 53 pledges.
Saving calculation
- The holiday period is from 24/12/16 - 02/01/17;
- Electricity used during this time: 1,691,698 kWh;
- Gas used during this time: 1,722,411 kWh;
- The control period is from 28/11/16 - 23/12/16;
- Average electricity used during this time: 2,160,680 kWh;
- Average gas used during this time: 1,940,813 kWh;
- Figures are based on a mince pie weighing 65g and Christmas tree lights being 50W;
- Figures also assume that consuming 1kWh of electricity produces 0.41kg C02 and costs £0.12/kWh and consuming 1kWh of gas produces 0.18kg C02 and costs £0.035/kWh.
[1] Comparing UCL's energy use over the holiday period with the previous fortnight.
> Read more Christmas Switch-Off Results
- Christmas switch-off 2014
Comparing UCL's energy use over the holiday period with the previous fortnight, you helped save a huge 509,593 kWh of energy. That's a reduction of 20% in UCL's usual electricity use and would be enough electricity to keep the lights on a Christmas tree running for over 1,000 years.
> Read more The Christmas Switch Off: your impact.
