Hand (sort-of) Dryer

November 1, 2013 by 4 Comments

Recently I’ve been writing a lot about the environmental and sustainability initiatives on and around campus, such as Penn State’s recycling and waste diversion efforts, CATA’s switch to natural gas fueled buses, and the switch to reduced-flow shower heads in the bathrooms. It seems that everywhere you look on campus there’s a program to reduce, save something, from electricity to emissions to waste. So in a similar fashion today I’m going to investigate the ubiquitous hand dryers at Penn State.

I don’t question the environmental benefits of the hand dryers. Although energy is consumed in the manufacturing process and electricity is required to operate the dryer while in use, an electric hand dryer saves energy over its disposable counterparts. MIT published a detailed (113-page) life cycle assessment of electric hand dryers compared to other drying methods, including different types of hand dryers, washable cotton towels, paper towels, and paper towels made from recycled materials. They study covered all impacts for the methods, including manufacturing, transportation, operation, and disposal. Overall, the study concluded that the hand dyers generally had a lower environmental impact than the other methods. Additionally, hand dryers offer significant cost savings over paper towels, another obvious benefit for a large operation such as Penn State.

But not all hand dryers are equal. The one in my hall’s bathroom is a Machflow, manufactured by Mediclinics. Its website promotes the machine as 80 to 90 percent more efficient than traditional hand dryers. Another benefit listed by the company is that its model produces the the least amount of noise pollution. But at two in the morning it’s definitely not quiet… But no paper towels (or trash cans) are provided in the bathrooms, so it’s either bring your own towel, leave your hands wet, or annoy people.

http://74.82.131.110/webapps/liferay-1p/mediclinics/en/images/product/high/sensor-operated-hand-dryers-machflow-M09A.jpg

Mediclinics Machflow

Mediclinics touts the device as “ultra-fast,” drying hands in “record speed, between 8 and 12 seconds.” However, I’d also like to contest this statement. Never in any circumstance have I ever been able to dry my hands completely in 12 seconds with one of those dryers. Even when I shake some of the excess water off my hands before drying, I feel like I standing there forever—and the thing always shuts off while I’m using it.

 

 

http://www.exceldryer.com/PressKit/images/products/xlerator/White_angle_240dpi_no%20bg.jpg

Xlerator

On the other hand, the hand dryers in other Penn State bathrooms all seem to be way more effective. The Xlerator dyer in the bathrooms at the HUB seem to work very well, completely drying hands in what seems like a much shorter time. Upon further investigation, it seems that what allows Mediclinics to market their dryer as energy efficient is that their dryer as adjustable power settings. If I had to bet, I’d say Penn State sets the dryers to their minimum power setting (420 Watts), as opposed to the 1100-Watt maximum. The Xlerator dryers, however, are 1500-Watt dryers, and they don’t seem to be adjustable. It’d be interesting to study the energy cost of running a lower wattage dyer for a long time versus a higher wattage dryer for a shorter time. Perhaps this is a case where “green” marketing actually promotes lower-quality products. Sure, you can make a hand dryer that uses a minimum amount of electricity, but it might not get your hands dry as effectively. Instead, the focus should be on increasing efficiency—getting more heat and drying capability out of a minimum amount of energy.

 

MIT Study: http://msl.mit.edu/publications/HandDryingLCA-Report.pdf Mediclinics: http://www.mediclinics.com/machflow-sensor-operated-hand-dryer-m09a Xlerator: http://www.exceldryer.com/products_xlerator.php

Filed Under: Passion Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Penn State Recycling: For the Earth or For the Money?

October 18, 2013 by 2 Comments

http://sustainability.psu.edu/sites/default/files/resize/images/Mobi.CloseLoop-175x173.jpg

Have you seen this guy around campus recently? It seems that everywhere you go there’s a set of collection bins with a picture of a friendly Möbius loop urging you to recycle. As the posters around campus are eager to tell you, Penn State named its recycling program Möbius to represent Penn State’s commitment to “closing the loop” on solid waste. In other words, Penn State wants to divert as much waste as possible from the landfill. Currently, 65% of waste at Penn State does not end up in a landfill, which is projected to increase to 75% with the implementation of composting receptacles across the campus this year. In 2012, Penn State generated 15,372 tons of solid waste–that’s equivalent to the weight of almost 10,000 mid-size sedans, although the preferred unit of measurement by Penn State is (rather specifically)…adult bull elephants? I’m not sure what’s up with the elephants–my usual frame of reference for how heavy something is doesn’t usually include elephants, but hey, I guess whatever works…

 

However, while concern for the environment is likely part of the reason for Penn State’s new recycling and composting initiative, the main attraction is likely cost. The university has to pay about $70 for every ton of trash it disposes of at a landfill, but only $5 or $20 per ton for recyclables. If Penn State didn’t divert any of its waste, it would have to pay upwards of $1 million in disposal fees. The university saved almost $700,000 last year as a result of its waste diverting efforts. And that money goes to good use–so far, Penn State has raised over $800,000 for scholarships and charities as a result of its recycling program. And of course the rest of the savings help reduce the university’s operating costs. So every time we throw that water bottle in the trash because the recycling bin is too far down the hallway, we might just be adding to our annual tuition increase…

 

For more information: sustainability.psu.edu

 

Next week: a look into what actually happens to that bottle after you put it in the recycling bin.

 

Filed Under: Passion Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Little ID that Could: An Analysis of the Campus Meal Plan

September 27, 2013 by 4 Comments

The Campus Meal Plan. For all students living on campus, the only choice is which of the six levels to pick from. The meal plan is convenient: swipe your card at any of the dining halls and grab as many plates as you can fit on your tray and at a minimum two drinks. Then go back for more. And at a-la-carte dining options your meal plan gets you a 65% discount on prepared items. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right?

 

We’ll see.

Below is a table with the prices of Campus Meal Plan levels for this year.

Screen Shot 2013-09-27 at 12.39.38 PM

For each, you pay a base cost of $1,295 plus one dollar for every Dining Dollar. But while this table may seem to indicate that each Dining Dollar is equal to one US dollar, this is in fact a bit misleading. Calculating the total cost per dining dollar (dividing the Total Cost by number of Dining Dollars) yields the following results:

Screen Shot 2013-09-27 at 1.22.05 PM

In fact, you’re actually paying somewhere in the range of two to three US dollars for every Dining Dollar.

 

Now let’s take a look at the prices at the all-you-care-to-eat dining commons.

Screen Shot 2013-09-27 at 12.39.56 PM

At first glance, the Campus Meal Plan certainly looks good; only $1.95 for breakfast! But what if you’re on meal plan Level 1, where each Dining Dollar is equivalent to almost 3 US dollars?

Screen Shot 2013-09-27 at 1.22.11 PM

This table shows the equivalencies between Dining Dollars and US dollars. In fact, the Campus Meal Plan is not much of a discount at all for the lower tiers. For example, dinner with Level 1 is equivalent to $13.01 US dollars–almost the cash price and actually higher than the Lion Cash+ cost (which gives you a 10% discount but has an equal conversion with US dollars). The midrange meal plan tiers offer a modest discount, and as expected the highest tier yields the largest discount.

 

But that’s only for all-you-care-to-eat dining commons. What about those awesome paninis from Redifer? The cash price of a panini is $6.99, but when you use your meal plan it’ll ring up as a measly $2.45. But that $2.45 is equivalent to $7.32 US dollars with a Level 1 plan or $6.44 with Level 3. Not much of a discount after all. With the 10% discount for using Lion Cash+, that $6.99 panini would only cost $6.29 US dollars. A small difference, but significant. Even with the advertised 65% discount, you can pay more than the cash price with your meal plan–that’s not a discount at all.

 

Worse yet, you can use your meal plan Dining Dollars at other places, like the Creamery or the Burger King at the HUB. There’s no discount for meal plan purchases at these locations, so you’re paying anywhere from 2 to 3 times as much for your meal! On one occasion I went to Burger King, unaware that Dining Dollars could be used there. I handed over my student ID, and the receipt came back listing a payment method of Campus Meal Plan, and no one even asked whether I intended to use Lion Cash+ or Dining Dollars. So that $4 egg sandwich really cost me $10.52. That’s an expensive breakfast!

 

So to everyone I simply recommend being conscious of this fact. Yes, the Campus Meal Plan is convenient and required, but it has better uses than others. Unless you have to use up Dining Dollars at the end of the year or you’re in an emergency, never use your meal plan Dining Dollars for anything that isn’t discounted. Your base cost covers the cost of operating the dining commons, so why give that money to somewhere else?

Filed Under: Passion Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The Monster in the Bathroom

September 20, 2013 by 7 Comments

There’s a monster in the bathroom. It roars with an unrelenting fury that scathes everything in its path. Its raw force has the power to scour skin and irritate eyes. There’s a monster in the bathroom, and it looks like this:

showerhead

That’s right; it’s your bathroom shower head, but indeed it can easily be mistaken for a torture device that protrudes from the tiled walls. On my first night on campus, I walked into the shower, ready to be enveloped by a soothing cascade of warm water–just the right temperature. But what issued forth from the nozzle was an abrasive spray of water pellets that was concentrated on my back. Looking up, what was on the wall was unlike any shower head I was familiar with–the ones with a field of small nozzles, each one responsible for issuing a small jet of water. Combined, all the jets form a gentle shower of water. In contrast, the standard-issue Penn State shower heads consist of a small chamber that serves to aerate a high pressure stream of water into a spray. This is likely why the water pressure cannot be adjusted in Penn State showers; the shower head relies on the relatively high pressure to create its stream. Additionally, the barrel-shaped design facilitates easy cleaning and a greatly reduced chance of blockage from mineral deposits found in hard water.

 

The most obvious reason for the special shower heads is water savings. I did some probing on the Internet for information about low-flow shower heads for commercial applications and eventually found this website for High Sierra Showerheads/, a company that also specializes in manufacturing shower heads for use in prisons (that must be why they’re so luxurious). Indeed, the FCS-100 model looks exactly like the ones down the hall. These shower heads are, as expected, special models for commercial applications, where the potential for massive water savings exists. The FCS-100 is rated with a 1.5 gallon per minute flow rate. US legislation passed in 1992 placed a limit on the flow rate of shower heads at 2.5 gallons per minute, but High Sierra Showerheads takes the standard one step further.

 

But as much as I (and my scathed skin) hate to admit it, I think these shower heads are a great idea, and I applaud Penn State for its commitment to the environment. With upwards of 13,000 students living on campus, the water and energy savings from low-flow shower heads are very significant. With a 2.5 GPM shower heads, each of these students showering once a day for 10 minutes–a rather conservative estimate for college students–equates to an astounding 2,275,000 gallons of water just for one week’s worth of showering (not to mention other water usage and the energy required to heat that water and then process it at a wastewater treatment facility). A 1.5 GPM shower head can reduce that water consumption by 40%–that’s a reduction of over 13 million gallons of water per semester. And I think we can all agree that a bit of discomfort in the shower is a reasonable tradeoff for millions of gallons of water savings.

Filed Under: Passion Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

What is this?

September 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Are you a first-year student at Penn State University Park? I am, and if you’re reading this there’s about a 96% chance that you are, too. It’s been just over 2 weeks, and I’m just beginning to get the hang of this new routine. There are so many things to explore on this massive campus–hundreds of buildings spread across almost 5,500 acres, according to everyone’s favorite internet encyclopedia.

There’s so much stuff to do here–that is, during the time not spent walking across campus (but that’s for a future post)–that I’m sure I’ll still be learning three years from now. Some of the things I’ve already discovered: You can eat ice cream at the creamery, navigate through all the construction zones on campus, eat ice cream at the creamery, play frisbee on Old Main lawn, eat ice cream at the creamery, and consume junk food at pretty much any hour you like. Oh and I think there are classes here, too.

 

But I digress.

 

What is this blog all about, then? A good question, indeed. The details, it turns out, are still a work in progress, so you–the (hopefully) faithful reader–will have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness the evolution of this blog over the next twelve weeks. Fascinating, if I do say so myself.

The basic premise is that over the coming weeks I will select an experience I’ve had at Penn State during the week preceding the post–a cool tip I learned, a minor annoyance (read: complaint), something weird, an interesting fact or statistic (I love numbers)–and write about it. I hope to conduct a few experiments of my own, as well. I’ll try my best to make it funny, interesting, engaging, and/or relevant.

So here’s to some cool adventures over the course of the semester. I invite you to tag along with me (virtually) as I explore this place we now call home.

Filed Under: Passion Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
Skip to toolbar