Have You Overlook An Important Area When Saving Energy?
Often overlooked in today's marketplace when using green products, is how to reduce your carbon footprint. Maybe a story about the use of CFL (Compact Florescent Lamp) bulbs will help illustrate the point. I was having breakfast at a local restaurant when my father (who was visiting from out of town) observed that only forks and knives were used in the place setting. It seems that customers no longer need spoons.
Well, we asked our server what was going on. She told us that "corporate" had put a new rule in place at all the restaurants instead of investing in green products. The rule was that no spoons were to be placed on any place setting. I grew up in an environment where a full place setting was always set before a hungry customer, consisting of a fork, knife and spoon. Now, "corporate" in its wisdom has said that only if a customer ordered coffee was a spoon to be given to the customer. I have a six year-old that uses a spoon for her fruit bowl; we had to ask for a spoon.
After inquiring why this had occurred, I was informed that "corporate" believed that there would be an energy savings and yet not a single CFL bulb was in use. I asked how that was possible; I was told that if an unused spoon was rewashed it was costing the company money and energy. So to prevent this energy loss it was better to not put the spoon on the table. The customer would just have to wait as their coffee or hot cereal got cold or until the overworked and over utilized server was done handling the other customers who needed spoons (more likely food).
I find it hard to believe that the amount of money saved would be significant as opposed to using CFL bulbs to save money. I seem to remember, just after high school, I worked in fast-paced restaurant chain. Everyday practice was to wash the plates, pot, pans and miscellaneous items in one or two baskets, followed by the glassware, and then wash the silverware in the last basket. So, where would the energy savings be if dishes are washed this way?
While pondering on this I looked up and noticed that the entire restaurant was covered in lights. Each light was an incandescent bulb and no green products like CFL bulbs anywhere. I stopped when I reached fifty bulbs that I could see from my table; I know there were more in back kitchen area, in the bar and adjoining rooms.
Looking around it was easy to see that most of the incandescent bulbs were in the 75 watt range. I asked and was told this restaurant was open 138 hours each week.
So I did a little comparison; incandescent vs. green products like CFL bulbs. Using a little math: 50 incandescent bulbs * 75 watts = 3750 watts per hour. To figure the total watts per week for the store, take the watts per hour 3750 watts * 138 hours the store is open per week = 517,500 watt hours per week. The grand total for one year would be 517,500 * 52 weeks = 26,910,000 or 26 megawatts for this store alone so I wondered what the saving would be using green products like CFL bulbs.
Looking up the restaurant chain up on the web reviled they owned 88 stores. So, figuring 50 bulbs is average and everything remains the same, a whopping 88 * 26,910,000 = 2,368,080,000 watt hours or 2,368.08 megawatt hours is used per year for this chain of stores without using green products or any CFL bulbs.
Now, what if we replaced all the incandescent bulbs with CFL bulbs? Well, a replacement for a 75 watts bulb runs 18 watts. So 50 bulbs times 18 watts would equal 900 per hour. Then we multiple 900 watts times 138 store hours and we get 124,200 watt hours per week. Then multiply 124,200 * 52 week we would get or 6.46 megawatt hours per year. Now, take the megawatt hours per year (6.46) times the number of stores (88) and we get around 568 megawatt hours per year for the whole chain using green products. If we do a little subtraction, we would get around 2,368 minus 568 = 1800 megawatt hours savings. I would say that they would be saving more than pennies if they were using green products like CFL bulbs.
Well, we asked our server what was going on. She told us that "corporate" had put a new rule in place at all the restaurants instead of investing in green products. The rule was that no spoons were to be placed on any place setting. I grew up in an environment where a full place setting was always set before a hungry customer, consisting of a fork, knife and spoon. Now, "corporate" in its wisdom has said that only if a customer ordered coffee was a spoon to be given to the customer. I have a six year-old that uses a spoon for her fruit bowl; we had to ask for a spoon.
After inquiring why this had occurred, I was informed that "corporate" believed that there would be an energy savings and yet not a single CFL bulb was in use. I asked how that was possible; I was told that if an unused spoon was rewashed it was costing the company money and energy. So to prevent this energy loss it was better to not put the spoon on the table. The customer would just have to wait as their coffee or hot cereal got cold or until the overworked and over utilized server was done handling the other customers who needed spoons (more likely food).
I find it hard to believe that the amount of money saved would be significant as opposed to using CFL bulbs to save money. I seem to remember, just after high school, I worked in fast-paced restaurant chain. Everyday practice was to wash the plates, pot, pans and miscellaneous items in one or two baskets, followed by the glassware, and then wash the silverware in the last basket. So, where would the energy savings be if dishes are washed this way?
While pondering on this I looked up and noticed that the entire restaurant was covered in lights. Each light was an incandescent bulb and no green products like CFL bulbs anywhere. I stopped when I reached fifty bulbs that I could see from my table; I know there were more in back kitchen area, in the bar and adjoining rooms.
Looking around it was easy to see that most of the incandescent bulbs were in the 75 watt range. I asked and was told this restaurant was open 138 hours each week.
So I did a little comparison; incandescent vs. green products like CFL bulbs. Using a little math: 50 incandescent bulbs * 75 watts = 3750 watts per hour. To figure the total watts per week for the store, take the watts per hour 3750 watts * 138 hours the store is open per week = 517,500 watt hours per week. The grand total for one year would be 517,500 * 52 weeks = 26,910,000 or 26 megawatts for this store alone so I wondered what the saving would be using green products like CFL bulbs.
Looking up the restaurant chain up on the web reviled they owned 88 stores. So, figuring 50 bulbs is average and everything remains the same, a whopping 88 * 26,910,000 = 2,368,080,000 watt hours or 2,368.08 megawatt hours is used per year for this chain of stores without using green products or any CFL bulbs.
Now, what if we replaced all the incandescent bulbs with CFL bulbs? Well, a replacement for a 75 watts bulb runs 18 watts. So 50 bulbs times 18 watts would equal 900 per hour. Then we multiple 900 watts times 138 store hours and we get 124,200 watt hours per week. Then multiply 124,200 * 52 week we would get or 6.46 megawatt hours per year. Now, take the megawatt hours per year (6.46) times the number of stores (88) and we get around 568 megawatt hours per year for the whole chain using green products. If we do a little subtraction, we would get around 2,368 minus 568 = 1800 megawatt hours savings. I would say that they would be saving more than pennies if they were using green products like CFL bulbs.
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posted by SolveItQuick at
1:01 AM
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