Self-Help Store offers products to help save energy

  • Published
  • By Gerald Johnson
  • 341st Civil Engineer Squadron Resource Efficiency Manager
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  "Change a Light... Change the World" was December 2009's energy conservation slogan for the U.S. Air Force. In the past six months, the Self-Help Store staff have issued 1,525 compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs, to housing residents to replace incandescent bulbs in base housing units.

If each of these lights is used for four hours per day, 365 days per year, that will save 122,193 kilo-watt-hours of electricity and more than $8,700 in annual utility costs. So, what you do can, and does, make a difference. If you haven't made the switch to CFLs in your base house, the Self-Help Store has 15-, 20 - and 26-watt conventional, and 14 watt porch CFLs available for military housing residents. These are equivalent in brightness to 60-, 75- and 100 watt incandescent bulbs.

The Self-Help Store also has a stock of radiant workspace heaters that use about 10 percent of the electricity of traditional milk house convection heaters. These units are designed to be placed under desks to warm the immediate work area, but not entire rooms.

Help Malmstrom AFB achieve our federally mandated energy conservation goals by turning in your old convection heaters and replace them with the new, safer, more-efficient radiant heaters. It is estimated there are at least 500 milk-house heaters in use on base. If they were all replaced with the new radiant heaters, nearly one million kilowatt hours of electricity and $68,000 in utility costs could be saved. Exchange your convection heater for a radiant heater to do your part in energy conservation.

If you have a workspace heater, it must have a sticker approving it for use on Malmstrom. Stickers can be obtained from the 341st Civil Engineer Squadron energy group located in building 470. However, for approval all heaters must have:

1. Automatic Tip Over Switch
2. Automatic Overheat Protection
3. Built-In Thermostat Switch

Workspace heaters cannot be approved without these features. If your heater does not clearly have evidence of these features, you should obtain a manufacturer's cut-sheet providing proof it has them. Cut-sheets are often available on the manufacturer's Web page. Bring your heater and cut-sheet to 341st CES for approval.

In addition, all workspace heaters must be unplugged when not in use. They must plug into a receptacle and not a power strip or extension cord. A space of 18 inches must be maintained between the heater and any combustible material. These conditions are in accordance with AFOSH Standard 91-501.

Additional information is available at 731-7768.