Stephanie Foster - George Brown College
Hi All, I am wondering if any of you have policies to limit
the use of appliances in offices, whether it is personal space heaters, to
microwaves, toasters, kettles, etc.
The rationale would be to limit plug load, especially in
older buildings where these appliances can overburden the
electrical power system and even pose fire risks that may result in
localized power outages causing work disruptions.
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Pavel Graymason - U of Toronto
Hi Stephanie,
We don’t have one, but I’d sound a note of concern over a
‘policy’. For example, if people feel they need personal heaters in old
buildings, is that because those buildings need better insulation? Just banning
the heaters (in this example) wouldn’t actually address the problem.
Might need some community consultation and a collaborative
solution: IF the administration does this THEN staff will do that. That,
coupled with an educational campaign about the true cost of personal space
heaters etc… could be piloted in an especially cold/old building.
Anyway, my comments come from my experience, which might not be
relevant in your case! Hope that helps.
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Taryn Wilkinson - Niagara College Canada
Hi Stephanie,
We are in the process of having an
Energy Efficiency Practice approved by our Executive Team, and in it there is
specific information relating to personal appliances, which I have attached for
you.
Two years ago we completed a personal
appliance inventory, in which one of our summer students did a full inventory
of all the appliances found on site. It was time consuming but the information
we got out of it allowed us to roughly calculate the amount of energy and money
we spent powering these appliances (which for us was ~$30,000) and once we
presented that information to our senior management, they were the ones driving
for a practice to limit the use of the appliances, which is always helpful!
Hope this helps!
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André Plante - Sheridan College
Stephanie,
I tend to agree with Pavel… comfort is an important aspect of
worklife and people that compensate with space heater are doing it for a
reason…they are feeling cold :-)
In the grand scheme of things, if most of your buildings are
well-balanced, a few space heaters in cold areas may be worth the improved
employee performance… perhaps a specific model of space heater that your
facility service approves of as "safe and energy efficient" could be
provided and maintained by them.
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Shelley Strain - Trent University
I know Stephanie is looking at appliances overall and Trent also does
not have a policy. In reference to the space heaters-we have tried
radiant panels.
These only use 100W which is a fraction of what a space heater uses and
warm up folks feet, which make them feel warmer. It isn’t a good solution
if there is a real issue with the heating system, but many of the complaints
that result in space heaters are from people who have trouble regulating their
own temperature and in those cases (although we don’t characterize it as such
for them) we find these help and save energy!