While thousands across the country are celebrating Earth Day today with the planting of trees and city wide cleanups, the city of Piedmont and one local business practice conservation techniques every day.Piedmont City Clerk Bill Fann said the city has never had to mandate any sort of restrictions because the city’s department heads are very earth conscious on their own.
Recommendations commonly made to all the city’s departments include turning off the lights when a room is not being used and setting thermostats at a set temperature for the entire day.
Four rows worth of large, industrial-style lighting fixtures in the old Armory building were previously turned on all day, Fann said. But after efforts to conserve energy, electrical authority crews and the few employees with offices in the building keep the lights off when only a few people are in the building.
The city monitors the utility usage of its various facilities, and Fann said he has seen a constant consciousness for energy conservation. “I’ve been really surprised at how little energy all of our facilities are using,” he said. “It shows me there’s already been some conservation efforts going on.”
Not only has the city been conserving on its utilities, but on fuel usage as well.
With steadily rising gas prices, Fann said city employees who drive vehicles and other equipment for the city are constantly reminded to be mindful of their fuel usage and its cost. Even though the city does not pay state taxes on the fuel used in its vehicles, all employees are asked to use the lowest priced fuel available at local gas stations.
Larger equipment, such as the city’s street sweeper, are also only used a two or three days per week, versus the five days per week it used to run.
Fann said the city focuses on maintaining the delicate balance between providing its citizens with quality service while also conserving fuel. “It’s hard to conserve without sacrificing the quality of service,” he said.
Local business owner James Bennett, of Bennett Lumber, can relate to the sting of rising fuel costs.
In the lumber business, seasoning the wood properly is an important part to providing quality lumber to customers. But with a natural gas-powered boiler that produces the heat to season the wood, fuel costs can drive an owner to consider more “green” options.
That was what pushed Bennett to research other ways to produce the heat and steam necessary to cure his freshly cut lumber.
After months of installation and a $550,000 loan for the new boiler, Bennett’s lumber is now seasoned using a wood-fired boiler system that uses scrap wood from his own lumberyard.
Bennett said by using the leftover shavings, sawdust and scraps from the lumber as fuel; his company will be able to save thousands of dollars in the next year. In 2006, the company paid around $394,000 for natural gas usage during the year. But with the new boiler, the only cost incurred to the company is a loan payment and about $350 per day worth of waste wood. The waste wood was previously sold to local chicken farmers for use as bedding in the chicken houses, Bennett said.
Bennett Lumber Manager Lee Hubbard said although the boiler cost over half a million dollars, its worth to the company in the long run is worth every penny. “That’s just a year’s worth of gas bills,” he said.
While local businesses make every effort these days to conserve energy to lower their bills, Fann said local residents can do the same with the help of a unique tool on the city’s Web site.
The Energy Depot provides residential customers of the city’s electrical authority a free energy audit for their homes. Using information from the customers about their homes and their energy usage, the audit provides residents with a checklist of energy-saving ideas to save money on their monthly power bills. The Energy Depot is provided by the Alabama Municipal Electrical Authority.
You can access the Energy Depot by visiting www.piedmontcity.org and clicking on the “Power and Light” link under the “Departments”option at the top of the screen. Then, look for the “AMEA Energy Depot” link on the page.
