Med center in energy curtailment

UNMC and the Nebraska Medical Center will be in energy curtailment through Friday. The goal of energy curtailment periods is to use less energy on days when the combined heat and humidity create stress on campus energy systems.

The Energy Curtailment page of LiveGreen provides a full explanation, but you should no longer be freezing cold in your office during energy curtailment. Please note that when you first walk in it will still feel cool.

In the past, many of you felt cold on curtailment days. It seemed backward, that you would save energy by having it be colder in spaces when it was so hot out. It was an effective way to save energy and money though — it’s inefficient to produce heat when it’s hot out, and that’s what we were doing. By not producing that heat, some spaces felt cold.

Due to updated technology, spaces will not need to be pre-cooled to as cold of temperatures as in the past in order to see the energy savings. This does mean that your space will likely get warmer in the afternoon. For example, instead of finding your space at 67 degrees when you arrive, it could be at 70. In the afternoon, instead of being at 72, it will be 75.

Not only does this tend to mirror what happens in a residential situation, but it is also overwhelmingly what you, the building occupants, have requested. You were cold sitting at your desk and would rather have it be a little warmer and we are happy to report that this is now possible.

The med center has a temperature range to maintain. Please call 402-552-3347 (Nebraska Medicine) or 402-559-4050 (UNMC) to report spaces colder than 66 degrees or warmer than 78 degrees.

Patient care and research spaces are not affected by energy curtailment. Read how you can help save energy during curtailment and always.