The invention discloses a distributed low-cost energy consumption monitoring system for university campuses, which comprises a universal PC (personal computer), a monitoring host, gateways and four types of energy consumption nodes, wherein the universal PC, the monitoring host and a plurality of gateways are connected to a university campus network through an Ethernet, and the plurality of gateways are connected with the plurality of energy consumption nodes through a wireless sensor network. The system disclosed by the invention is low in construction and maintenance costs of a backbone network, convenient and agile; a small core ZigBee module is developed in the system, and embedded into the existing energy consumption detecting instrument, therefore, the energy consumption nodes with a communication networking function are formed, and the existing investment is protected, so that the system is easy to apply and promote; and the gateways of the system are embedded into a Webserver, and release energy consumption data in a webpage form, so that a distributed low-cost energy consumption monitoring system is formed, thereby improving the reliability of the system and facilitating the management and the participation of teachers and students.