University Park, Pa. -- It's a rite of passage for many first-year college students: That pile of dirty clothes is growing exponentially, and the laundry fairy who used to make clean duds magically appear in the dresser drawer dropped you off on campus weeks ago. It's time to breach the unknown and pay a visit to the laundry room.
This fall, when Penn State students finally venture to their residence hall laundry room, they'll have a surprise waiting for them: hundreds of new, state-of-the-art washing machines that will do much more than clean clothes—they're also expected to save the University more than $110,000 in energy costs and an estimated 14.2 million gallons of water per year.
Penn State Housing and Residence Life recently completed the installation of approximately 350 new, energy-efficient Maytag washers in all the residence halls at the University Park campus. New machines are also slated for installation at the Altoona, Berks, Beaver, Erie, Hazleton, McKeesport and Mont Alto campuses, bringing the systemwide count to more than 600 units. Gone are the traditional top-load washing machines. They've been replaced by cutting-edge, front-load Maytag Commercial Neptune washers, which are much more efficient than traditional models.
"The change over to front-loading machines came about through a strong and informed partnership between Penn State Housing, the Association of Residence Hall Students (ARHS), Caldwell & Gregory (the University's contract laundry service) and Maytag Commercial Laundry," said Gail Hurley, assistant vice president of Penn State's Housing and Residence Life. One look at the list of advantages the new machines offer reveals how valuable this transition is for the University.
The benefit of installing the new machines is three-fold: They're significantly more environmentally friendly; their ecological efficiency is saving the University thousands in energy costs; and their ease of use may enhance the quality of life for students.
The new washers are ENERGY STAR-rated, which is a government evaluation of "superior energy efficiency." The bottom line is that they use less energy to operate, require less detergent (which equates to fewer detergent-derived environmental pollutants and less cost for students), save an average of 18 gallons of water per load, and dispel more water from clothing during their 1,000-rpm spinning cycle (traditional machines spin at approximately 500 rpms), thereby resulting in less time and energy required in the drying process.
By converting to these high-efficiency washers, Penn State will realize a more-than-50 percent saving on water usage, which translates into more than 12.4 million gallons of water saved each year on the University Park campus. At the Commonwealth campuses, where the new Maytag Commercial Neptune washers also are being installed, water usage will be reduced by more than half, with total gallons used per year dropping from almost 3.5 million to just over 1.6 million.
"This laundry installation represents the enormous impact that energy-efficient laundry equipment can have on an institution, a community and the environment," said Craig Kirchner, general manager, Maytag Commercial Laundry. "Maytag is proud to bring dependable, energy-efficient solutions to institutions like Penn State through our distributor partners, Caldwell & Gregory."
Students pursuing summer studies on the University Park campus were among the first to try out the new machines. While reaping the benefits of having access to cutting-edge laundry technology, the students also are pleased to be taking an active role in curbing the University's use of natural resources.
"The new washers in the residence halls not only allow students to do a larger wash load at a time and spend less time doing laundry, they will also continue Penn State's initiative to be more environmentally concerned," said Travis Burke, president of ARHS, the student group with whom Penn State Housing and Residence Life worked very closely to bring the campus installation to fruition.
"From the first moment we engaged ARHS, they were enthusiastically in favor of making this happen," said Fraser Grigor, associate director of special projects for Penn State Housing and Food Services. "The efforts of this student group, Caldwell & Gregory and Maytag Commercial Laundry made this conversion process nearly seamless."
Not losing sight of the immediate, personal benefits of this initiative for students, senior Kevin Henry, a major in secondary education-mathematics, shared, "While it is always nice to save the University money and to better conserve resources like water, the bottom line for many students is how they are affected. The new washers use less detergent and cause less wear on clothes -- and those are qualities the average student can appreciate."
Penn State is one of the largest institutions to install the Maytag Commercial Neptune washers on its campus. The University of Delaware, with an enrollment of 16,000 undergraduate students, launched this initiative in 2002, saving more than three million gallons of water annually. However, with a student body almost three times the size of Delaware's just at the University Park campus and realizing almost five times the amount of yearly water conservation, "Penn State, with its large footprint, is making a significant impact on water conservation in Pennsylvania," said John Gregory, president, Caldwell & Gregory Inc.
To see what the new washers look like, go to http://live.psu.edu/still_life/2004_08_20_washer/
For a summary of Penn State's ongoing energy-savings initiatives, go to http://live.psu.edu/story/7650