ENERGY CONSERVATION
Power PlantEnergy Expenses
How can I help reduce energy costs myself?
Lights
Computer
Printer
Coffee Makers
The Power Plant'S energy budget and other utility budgets for the main campus and Guindon Hall on Smyth Road come to 6.2 million dollars a year.
Approximately 2.5 million dollars are spent on water for users and on heating. The University uses heating oil and natural gas for furnaces that heat the water for all permanent campus buildings. The University also uses electricity, to the tune of 3.7 million dollars a year.
For a graph outlining Energy Expenses in 2004-2005, click here.
At the Physical Resources Service, we want to reduce these costs by five per cent, but without affecting your comfort levels with heat and lighting reductions.
There is one question you should be asking, and that's "how can I help reduce energy costs myself?"
Well, consider these easy yet very helpful habits :
Turn off your office lights if you go out for more than five minutes.
Use the Energy Star option on your computer (if it's installed).
Turn off your Printer when it's not in use.
Appoint someone to turn off coffee makers at the end of the day.
Turn off kitchen and conference room lights when possible.
Report water waste (for instance, constantly running toilets) to extension 2222.
With your help, we could save as much as $300 000 every year.
From 300 tonnes of coal
to a 3.6-million-dollar power plant
The year was 1906. In November, a certain Brother Édouard Roy, then 16 years of age, joined the University, which was managed by the Oblate Fathers.
Brother Roy was hired to feed coal into the institution's two modest furnaces. In an average year, some 300 tonnes would have flown off Brother Roy's shovel into the boilers. In 1913, the University added a third furnace, and 11 years later replaced all three with two more- powerful units. In the meantime, Brother Roy had become a heating specialist, with diplomas as an engineer, a plumber and an electrician.
By 1956, it was time to convert from coal to oil, and Brother Roy oversaw the task. So, the University's heating system went from burning over 2500 tonnes of coal a year to consuming 2000 gallons of oil a day in the dead cold of winter. The new oil furnaces were installed at 8 Hastey Street, near the Arts building. At the time, the new system was expected to meet the University's needs for the next 30 years.
Still, at the end of the 1960s, the University
drew up plans for a new power plant. The sod- breaking ceremony took place
in 1971 and construction ended in January 1973. The two old furnaces were
now a dusty memory, replaced by a 3.6-million-dollar power plant whose
floor- to-ceiling windows reveal huge furnaces and a colourful maze of
pipes and ducts. The plant has three stacks towering 210 feet above the
campus, and Brother Roy's shovel has given way to a flashing control panel.
Send your comments or suggestions to:
Pierre de Gagné, Engineer, Energy and Environment
Send your comments or suggestions to
Pierre de Gagné, Engineer, Energy and Environment
Wise use of utilities
- When ordering new desk lamps, insist on ones consuming less than 60
Watts.
- Insist on electronic equipment approved by the United States Environmental
Protection Agency with the Energy Star logo.
- Turn on office equipment only when required.
- Turn off everything in your office before leaving for lunch or a meeting.
- Enjoy natural light when possible.
- If office light intensity is regularly too strong, call 2222
and ask for a review of options to decrease it.
- Designate two persons to turn off coffee makers after their last use!
If one is absent, the other will make sure that the burner is not left
on overnight.
- Turn off lights in washrooms when leaving.
- Call 2222
and report any obvious water waste. Wash dishes by filling the sink
instead of rinsing under running water.
- Use instant hot water only when appropriate.
- Don't use the toilet as a waste basket.
- If it is constantly too hot or too cold in your office, call 2222
and ask for repairs and/or adjustments.
- Use exhaust hoods efficiently.
- Use demineralized water only when absolutely necessary.
- Take the stairs rather than the elevators when possible.
- Send your comments or suggestions to: Pierre de Gagné, Engineer, Energy and Environment
Shedding Light on Energy Costs
Consider this. The University has some 200 classrooms
equipped with 60-watt lighting accessories that stay on an extra eight
hours a day (during the night), six days a week. Multiply that by 40 weeks
of operation at an average cost of $0.08 a kilowatt-hour and the bill
comes to...$51,840 a year.
Send your comments or suggestions to:
Pierre de Gagné, Engineer, Energy and Environment
Personal
Computers:
How We Can Byte into Energy Bills
Did you know that your computer needs about 150
watts to operate? It costs roughly $0.08 per kilowatt-hour for the hydro.
That means if the campus's 5000 computers were turned off when not in
use, we'd save about $344,000. If only 1,000 were shut off, we'd still
save $70,000.
Send your comments or suggestions to:
Pierre de Gagné, Engineer, Energy and Environment
Not All Printers Are Born Equal
Printers actually come in three types, with three very different energy
appetites.
Laser printers use on average 300 watts during a job and 150 when idle.
Ink jet printers use 10 watts whether printing or not.
Dot matrix printers use 50 watts when printing and 26 watts when idle.
Source : Ontario Hydro
Send your comments or suggestions to:
Pierre de Gagné, Engineer, Energy and Environment
Coffee-makers: Grounds for Concern
Coffee makers are real energy gluttons. In fact, Protection
Services officers say almost 60 per cent of their calls are for coffee
makers left on so long that the residue coffee has burned to a crisp on
the bottom of the carafe.
Send your comments or suggestions to: Pierre
de Gagné, Engineer, Energy and Environment