Hello! We had our third Energy Task force meeting last week. Discussion was had over the latest suggestions that had been presented to the Cabinet at the previous meeting.
Chris from Waverly Light and Power gave the statistic that Wartburg will save $17,500 a year if the temperature is decreased by one degree campus wide.
He also said that over Winter Break, the college will save between $4,000-5,000 with implementing a five degree cool down during a nine day period while students and staff are not on campus. An idea to increase staff and faculty's paid time off by two days during break would increase the cool down by two more days equalling more savings.
Other things discussed at the meeting:
* Library Hours- the Library is on a two week trial run in concern to Saturday's hours. If the library feels that enough people are using the 72,000 feet of space during the hours of 9am-1pm they will consider keeping their doors open during this time. If not enough students are using the space, the library will become closed during this time and open at 1pm and stay open until 5pm. I will post more on this as it becomes available.
* Educational buildings will be kept (if possible) at 67 degrees, or as close to this as possible. About an hour before buildings close the temperature will start to cool down, this is done because it takes a while for the temperature to drop. The buildings will start the warm up process an hour before buildings open in the morning.
* Faculty and Staff have been asked to dress warmer this winter and adapt to the change in temperature. They have also been asked to not use space heaters because this defeats the purpose to the drop in temperature. Some buildings as John Weurtz noted have leaky windows and they will be allowed space heaters but only in these identified areas such as the Whitehouse Business Center.
* Routine checks will start this week to make sure that lights that do not need to be on will be shut off.
*Students may be asked to conserve the amount of time that they spend in the shower.
*A suggestion to turn down the water temperature was made, and John Weurtz said that the water is as low as we can keep it to comply with the Health codes that are needed to remain at a higher temperature so that the dishwashers meet regulations.
*Discussion on the possibility of starting earlier in the year, preferably at the end of August, would cut down on the amount of weeks that the college heats buildings for.
*Old Main, and the Diers and Mannie Holmes Houses will be cooled down over the weekend. Students may be asked to find other places to meet instead of in these places.
The Energy Task Force will not meet for two weeks, so if you have comments or suggestions please send them to Kate Hunt at Catherine.hunt@wartburg.edu, or Student Senate at Senate@wartburg.edu and we will pass them on at the meeting =)
Till then we'll keep you posted!Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Kate
