The University of Dayton (UD) currently owns over 350 houses with nearly 1,700 upper-class student residents. The houses are a mixture of old leaky homes, renovated homes, and newly constructed duplexes. Energy use varies widely from house to house due to occupancy, house size and quality, and occupant behavior. To neutralize these and other variables, and charge students more fairly, the university bills each student implicitly and identically for energy within their rooming charge.

As a result, students have no concept of how much energy they use, and student behavior is not accounted for. Students that excessively use energy pay the same as the students with energy-efficient behavior. Thus, the billing policies have resulted in a lose-lose-lose situation. The students and university both spend more money on energy costs, and the environment must absorb more pollution. According to 2001-2002 academic year utility bills, students used about $600,000 in energy, resulting in about 6,100 tons of CO2 emissions.

This paper presents descriptions and results of energy-reduction studies, contest, and policy change.