Sustainability at Lake Superior College

35,000 watts of energy saved every hour!

Winter in the Northland is here, so now is the time to think about our very best energy saving opportunities.  The LSC maintenance department works hard to assure the comfort of all building occupants.  If your work space is feeling chilly, consider a few tips:

• contact our maintenance department to find out if adjustments can be made,
• consider dressing in layers, and/or
• use a heated footrest.

Per campus and Minnesota State policies, space heaters are NOT allowed in any campus area.  They are a fire hazard when located under desks or near paper, and should never be plugged into extension cords.  Additionally, space heaters use about 1,500 watts of electricity per hour!  That’s the equivalent of running a dishwasher or toaster oven in your office, all day long!

Alternatively, the Sustainability Council rolled out an energy saving pilot in November 2014, and to date, they’ve distributed 26 heated footrests to employees, each running on only 100-250 watts of electricity.  This means that if everyone who received a heated footrests had previously used a rogue space heater, we’re now saving about 35,000 watts of energy per hour; that’s about $500 per month!  But most important, our employees are more comfortable.

Did you miss the first round of energy savings?  You have another chance, but now there’s a catch…to receive a footrest, you’ll have to help us with a Workspace Thermal Study.  You’ll agree to provide us with 1 week of temperature information in exchange for one of these dandy heaters.  If you’re not into science or numbers, contact us and we’ll give you vendor suggestions and you can buy your own footrest.

Also, don’t forget to turn off and unplug ALL of you unused equipment, including mini fridges, coffee pots, printers, and microwaves, when not in use (especially over long breaks and weekends)!