Chirag Tale Andhera

The title of this article comes from an age old hindustani saying, meaning of which is; “Just below the lantern; lies the darkness”. And, indeed this is very true in case of IITK. Now the question arises how? Let me try to put my point. Let us have a look at the monthly electricity consumption (in terms of unit) of different hostels in our campus.

Month	Hall1	Hall2	Hall3	Hall4	Hall5	Hall6	Hall7	Hall8	Hall9	GH
Jan07*	47480	19840	14200	37600	50160	16520	65740	79160	13240	34200
Feb07	52148	32051	21665	43011	53833	14871	49170	52548	17000	57985
Mar07	54940	34445	25965	42521	59024	9410	48865	43782	15200	55762
Apr07	61502	37397	32780	41255	63563	9037	64393	40218	13200	60890
May07	46111	22022	24162	41539	37791	8664	64413	37754	10600	55524
June07	43099	19814	21043	40015	33357	8141	70346	34207	11200	59692
July07	34871	18997	26023	37383	30303	7347	52533	33177	18200	44883
Aug07*	46760	21160	18454	33880	36560	8720	42420	34280	15760	29320
Sep07	59060	23584	32590	41730	45100	6760	57716	34900	29400	60280
Nov07*	41360	20680	12013	34320	29840	8400	34780	37160	15120	26880
Dec07	37468	14195	15999	43343	26087	12496	68713	55291	28624	51341
Jan08**	66600	41200	30400	54240	47400	17920	110800	79500	52800	88800
Avg.(for year 07)	47732	24434	23069	39900	41546	9385	55335	40332	17588	50256
Students	452	459	462	486	450	112	410	489	300	310
Units/ Student	105.60	52.23	49.93	82.1	92.32	83.79	134.96	82.48	58.63	162.12
Cost/ Student (Rs)	359.05	181	169.77	279.1	313.9	284.2	458.87	280.42	199.33	551.19

Table 1: Electricity consumed in blocks of different halls including mess. *Electricity consumed in mess is not included, only blocks. **Total electricity units including shops, street lights etc. Data can be obtained from the respective hall offices. Cost@Rs 3.39

After analyzing the data one could easily find that the electricity consumption in most of our halls is huge. Now, one question that naturally comes to my mind is, do we really need so much of electricity or are we simply wasting most of it? I can’t really say that how much electricity we actually need, but one thing I am sure of is that we can certainly reduce our electricity consumption. I usually see that people are not in their rooms but the lights and fans are on, sometime even the music is on, I can’t guess for whom. One can find the lights on in the bathrooms and common rooms of the hostels in the day time as well. Can’t we think of saving this electricity?

Most of us have must seen the GLOBAL WARMING documentaries floating on the LAN. They talk about reducing our energy consumption. I have seen people talking about all these stuff in our campus too; even few days ago we had an official seminar on that. I don’t know how much of that is true, but even if that is all false, can’t we save electricity so that others in our neighborhood can get that? Villages nearby IITK are not even getting electricity for 12 hours a day; and now since the summer is ahead they will get even less as our consumption will go up. Can’t we think of them? Can’t we think of the children residing in these villages who at night use oil lamps for studying? I don’t know how many of us before coming to IIT have enjoyed such a continuous supply of electricity. Those who have not will certainly appreciate what I am trying to convey.