July 26, 2005 -- No longer a secret, the word about the successful use of an electric thermal storage (ETS) heating system to reduce heating expenses in the commercial and industrial world has now spread to the public sector. Institutions such as schools, universities, and hospitals are quickly adopting ETS technologies to reduce peak-demand energy costs by efficiently storing heat during low-cost, off-peak hours, and then releasing this less-costly energy during normal working hours or peak periods in order to reduce the billable demand. With documented savings of up to 48%, facility managers at some public buildings are even replacing aging natural gas furnace systems with an ETS heating system that reap rapid payback because of reduced utility expenses (http://www.steffes.com/offpeak).
“ At Cabano, all the space heating is provided by electricity, and it took approximately 70 kW of electricity to heat the gy... ”
"With ETS, there are savings beyond the avoidance of excessive peak-demand energy costs; this is a way to ensure a good payback," says Alain Moreau, Researcher and Project Manager for Hydro-Quebec, one of the largest energy distributors in the world. "The payback period that I can see for ETS is between zero and four years."
Unlike manufacturing and processing plants that can push production into "off" hours, public institutions must be open during peak-demand hours to allow public access. Therefore, public and commercial offices with an electric furnace must bear the brunt of high heating expenses.
Yet, further gains accrue to those public facilities that currently rely on a natural gas furnace for comfort heating purposes.
Ecole Gérard Collin of Cabano, a public elementary school located in Cabano, Quebec, needed to provide heating for its 578 students using the school gymnasium. With average winter temperatures of -7 to –9 C to in Quebec pitted against rising utility costs, the school's director of material resources, Donald Daigle, turned to an ETS unit to contain expenses and replace their electric furnace.
"At Cabano, all the space heating is provided by electricity, and it took approximately 70 kW of electricity to heat the gym," recalls Moreau. "But then we installed a Model 8150 ThermElect ETS unit from Steffes. The gym is now heated only by the ThermElect, so we effectively used it as a load reduction tool to reduced the peak-demand costs for the school."
Steffes Corporation is a leading manufacturer of ETS equipment, with thousands of systems in use at residential sites across North America.
According to Daigle, Cabano School has already reduced overall heating costs for the campus by over $1,000-1200 (Canadian) using the ThermElect unit to heat the 1,000 sf gym.
"The impact of the heat reduction was high; in fact, we were able to reduce the peak demand at the school by 70 kW," says Hydro-Quebec's Moreau. "I know the client is very happy."
Pleased with the reality of impressive utility savings, Cabano school plans to purchase two more ETS units for their heating system
in 2006 to heat classrooms and administration offices totaling 2,000 square feet.
Other public institutions have taken note of successful installations such as this, making ETS an increasingly appealing choice for public and commercial buildings.
ThermElect has been developed for the business customers by Steffes Corporation with Laboratoire des Technologies de l’Energie (LTE), a leading technology arm of Hydro-Québec, one of the world’s largest utilities. More information about how electric thermal storage works or replacing your heating system in time for winter can be found at www.steffes.com.
