Saskatchewan Environmental Society and
the Saskatoon Friendship Inn
Energy Retrofit
Table of Contents
Introduction
Friendship and Energy: Energy Conservation at the Friendship Inn
Background Information
Project History
Project Detail
Project Potential
Project Planners
Why we all must do our part
How the Friendship Inn did their part
Introduction
Save Energy, Save Money and
Help Save the Planet!
Saskatchewan Environmental
Society can help community groups save money and the environment through
building energy retrofits!
Everyone finds
budgets are a little tight these days.
The Saskatchewan Environmental Society can show community groups how to
make changes to their building’s lighting, heating and insulation thereby
cutting utility costs dramatically.
It’s a win/win situation – community groups
save some money while greenhouse gas
emissions are reduced due to decreased energy use.
This reduction in greenhouse gases will
help to alleviate the Climate Change crisis in Saskatchewan.
The Saskatchewan
Environmental Society undertook a pilot energy conservation project at the
Saskatoon Friendship Inn, which significantly reduced the energy expenditures of
the Inn. The long-term savings, of
approximately $2,600.00
annually,
will allow the Friendship Inn to more effectively use its budget in support of
its core mission of daily meals service and social/self-help programs.
Other community groups can enjoy similar
savings!
Friendship and Energy: Energy Conservation at the Friendship Inn
Background Information
The long-term savings generated by this energy
conservation project will allow the Friendship Inn to more effectively use its
budget in support of its core mission:
social and self-help programs.
Project History
In 1996, the
Friendship Inn approached the Saskatchewan Environmental Society to investigate
the potential for energy conservation at their 20th Street
building. In the previous two
years, the Friendship Inn paid between $14,000.00 to $19,000.00 annually for
utilities (electricity, natural gas, and water).
This represented their largest budget
cost after salaries and benefits.
Any savings in these costs could be focused on social services and
self-help programming—a much more appropriate use of scarce Friendship Inn
resources.
With funding
secured by the Friendship Inn from the Shell Environment Fund, an energy audit
was conducted by Kelln Consulting of Lumsden, Saskatchewan.
This audit focused on retrofits with a
payback of less than five years and found good potential for savings.
Estimated savings of 12-20% were
possible. In other words, the
impact of this project will continue to positively benefit the Friendship Inn
for years to come.
Project Detail
Retrofits at the
Friendship Inn concentrated largely on the conversion of the lighting, since
this was deemed to be the area of greatest potential savings.
Most of the current lighting was
retrofitted with T8 fluorescent tubes, electronic ballasts, and specular
reflectors. In addition compact
fluorescent fixtures were used. The
replacement of the conventional fluorescent fixtures, however, reduced the
Friendship Inn's energy consumption by approximately 70% representing the bulk
savings for the project. Exit signs
were retrofitted with Light Emitting Diodes (LED's) that typically consume only
10% of the electricity used by conventional illuminated exit signs.
Other low-cost measures included the
installation of water conservation devices, weather-stripping and sealing of
leaks.
Project Potential
This project presented the Saskatchewan Environmental
Society with an opportunity to demonstrate the potential for energy conservation
as a cost-effective way of improving financial performance for non-profit groups
and at the same time reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
The project also demonstrated that
energy conservation is not just a “middle class” issue.
On the contrary, given that for most
households, energy expenditures represent the second highest cost category,
energy conservation represents one concrete strategy to increase the disposable
incomes of the poor. Climate Change
is an issue that will affect all Canadians and through energy conservation
projects such as this, everyone can be part of the
solution!
The Friendship
Inn saw the project as an opportunity to more effectively utilize its budget in
support of those activities of its mission, which included: offering social and
self-help programs such as the family support services, the children’s creative
play area, the summer art/recreation program for children, family camp, and the
literacy program.
Project Planners
College of Law
Follies Association, Climate Change Action Fund, Saskatchewan Environmental
Society, Conservation Systems Ltd., Husky Oil, SaskEnergy, SaskPower, Akzo
Nobel, Wascana Energy, Saskatchewan Energy & Mines, and Saskatchewan
Research Council.
Why we all must do our part
The earth’s ten
hottest years, since we started keeping records in 1860, occurred after
1982.
There is now
almost total agreement among scientists that this is a result of the increase of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which trap heat close to the earth’s
surface.
By far, the
biggest contributor to global warming is carbon dioxide.
CO2 levels have steadily increased over
the past 140 years as a direct result of burning carbon containing fossil fuels
like coal, oil and gas.
Atmospheric CO2
levels are expected to reach twice pre-Industrial Revolution levels sometime in
this new century. This will in turn
cause a rise in the earth’s average temperature of between 1 and 4.5 degrees
Celsius.
Saskatchewan’s
agriculture and forestry industries will be severely affected by even a minor
increase in average temperature.
Most climate change scenarios for the prairie region predict more
frequent and more extreme droughts as well as increased severe weather
events.
Canada has
committed to reduce its emissions to 6% below 1990 levels by the year 2010.
Unfortunately we know that energy demand
forecasts suggest that Saskatchewan’s emissions will be 52% above 1990 levels by
2010 if we continue to act on a “business as usual” basis.
How the Friendship Inn did their part
The combination
of electrical technologies uses approximately 60-70% less energy than
conventional fluorescent fixtures and will achieve the bulk of the
savings.
Changes to the
lighting were relatively simple with the removal and cleaning of the fluorescent
fixture lenses.
Taking out the existing bulbs, for later donation or
resale, in preparation for the electrician who changed the ballasts to the more
efficient electronic versions. The
new electronic ballasts have an expected 20-year life and produce light with no
noticeable flicker or hum.
The highly
reflective specular reflectors were then inserted along with two T8 fluorescent
tubes. The T8 tubes use less energy
than conventional fluorescent tubes without any impact on light levels.
Two T8 tubes, with a reflector, give you
at least as much light as four tubes in a standard fixture.
The resulting
change in quality and quantity of light was greatly improved, from a dimmer,
yellowish light to a brighter, whiter light.
Flow reduction
devices were installed in the tank of each toilet.
New weather
stripping and caulking were added around doorways, as well as an insulating film
on the windows to reduce heat transfer.
Water heater was inspected to ensure that it was a newer
model, natural gas fired unit with an insulated tank.
The SES
monitored the energy savings at the Friendship Inn for a two-year period to
document the impact of the retrofit.
Their findings will found at the end of this study.
It is a
relatively simple matter to undertake an energy retrofit on any building or
facility. The initial costs are
quickly recovered through reduced utility charges.
The savings to organizations and the
environment will last for years to come.
The City of
North Battleford undertook a similar project and over a three year period, saved
more than $113,000.00 and prevented 1680 tonnes of carbon dioxide
emissions.
Remember...we have not
inherited the earth from our parents, we are borrowing it from our
children. Let’s do what we can to
pass on a world that is at least as healthy as the one we
received.
For more information
contact Margret Asmuss, Project Coordinator at (306-
665-1915). You can also find out more at the Saskatchewan Environmental
Society's
web page on energy conservation.
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