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Bulletin #1
September 8, 2011
A
Note and Request from the Property Council Chair
This is the first of a number of
bulletins in respect to energy efficiency and particular the functioning
of the new building systems that are being installed at Fairlawn.
By this note I am asking that staff
and leaders of groups and programs regularly using the Assembly Hall give
attention to reducing the amount of time the Assembly Hall is unused but
fully lit. Because of the rewiring of the lighting completed a few weeks
ago this is now practicable and easier to do.
Regular users of the Assembly Hall may
have noticed the changes to the lighting switches. In particular there
is now an on/off switch at the most commonly used access point; that
is, the one from the west side basement corridor. This now controls
about 40% of the lights. These switches are doubled with two of the
switches near the south west access. The third switch of this grouping
controls the lights closest to the kitchen. This group of three switches
function essentially as they always have.
This rewiring was undertaken because it
has been noted over the past years that the lights in the Assembly Hall
are seldom turned off when an activity has ended and the space is fully
illuminated for hours while it sits empty. A fully illuminated Assembly
Hall with 23 fluorescent fixtures on consumes 3,680 watts. or almost 3.7
KW. That's equivalent to 61 of the old 60 watt light bulbs and many
times the total lighting load of any of our homes. Imagine keeping all
the lights on in your house and at least one neighbour for hour after
hour while the houses are empty. You would not do that in your home and
we all need to be equally energy conscious at Fairlawn.
A few years ago with the conversion to
compact fluorescents we achieved a significant one year reduction in
electrical use. Since then our consumption has been increasing yearly.
Last spring the Property Council converted all the exit lights to LED's
as a first step in reducing electrical energy use and cost. We are
actively looking at other LED opportunities and lighting control
technologies. However, one way to make significant progress in reducing
our electrical power consumption would be for all users of the
Fairlawn facility to turn off the lights when they or their program is
finished with a space.
In respect to the Assembly Hall, with
the previous wiring it was not really convenient or safe to turn off the
lights as one would have to exit via the most common route through
a darkened room or conversely on entering have to cross a darkened room
to reach the light switches. The new arrangement eliminates that reason
by virtue of providing an on/off switch at the northwest access. It
is my intention and hope that the Assembly Hall only be fully lit in
preparation for and during programs and activities. If lighting is
required for simple access switching one rank or 40% of the lights
by one switch should be sufficient. And those lights can be switched off
when that person leaves. At the end of the program, lights can be turned
off unless another program follows shortly. If the hall needs to be
illuminated for passing through only one set of lights should be used.
Some years ago, Fairlawn undertook to
become a leader in reducing our energy foot print. Our current heating
system upgrade is part of that and at the same time will provide a
healthier and more comfortable environment. I am asking everyone to
actively support our Greening mission by the simple expedient of
paying attention to the lighting in the spaces we use.
In terms of the caretaking staff I
expect that they will monitor the lighting of
the spaces they are working in and passing through and turn off lights
where there is no need for them to be on. For the rest of us, I hope we
can all exercise a bit of energy consciousness until it becomes second
nature to turn off the lights.
The next bulletins will likely deal with
the new thermostat controls and heat recovery ventilators (HRV) as they
come on line in the coming month.
Thank you
Thomas Clarke
Chair, Property Council
tom.clarke@sympatico.ca |
