The bathrooms on the basement level of Arntzen Hall now have Dyson Airblade hand dryers.
In an effort to become a more environmentally friendly campus, Western will install four Dyson hand dryers, two in each restroom, funded by the Green Energy Fee Program on Friday, Feb. 17.
The dryers blow two walls of air on inserted hands at 400 mph. Users pull their hands through the walls of air to create an invisible wiping effect, according to Dyson’s website.
To put this speed into perspective, some of the strongest tornadoes have wind speeds of more than 200 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
Kathryn Freeman, the Green Energy Fund grant program coordinator, said it almost “squeegees” your hand because the air blows so hard.
“From a cleaning stand point, you want that scraping action that cleans most of the germs off,” Freeman said.
Bodie Cabiyo, hand dryer project leader, said the idea originated from a Western class.
During Cabiyo’s campus sustainability planning studio class last year, his team brought up the idea to help reduce the number of paper towels thrown out annually.
The team’s waste audit data revealed that 25 percent of what was thrown out on Western’s campus was paper towels, Cabiyo said.
“[That figure] is absolutely insane considering those are all paper towels that could be composted, or could be forgone altogether,” Cabiyo said. “So we started looking at energy-efficient hand dryers.”
After conducting online market research comparing hand dryers, the team concluded the Dyson Airblade was the best in energy efficiency and hygiene.
The dryer uses cold air instead of hot air, which saves energy and doesn’t allow a warm environment for bacteria to live, Freeman said.
“[Hot air dryers] are essentially just blowing hot air onto your hands, which is sort of like baking the pathogens on and giving them a prime environment to grow on,” Cabiyo said.
The Airblade also uses a “high-efficiency particular air” filter to remove 99.9 percent of the bacteria, according to Dyson’s website.
The group selected the basement bathrooms in Arntzen Hall because they have the second-highest amount of use on Western’s campus, Cabiyo said.
He said Haggard Hall is used the most, but that building was already chosen for the restroom paper towel-composting project.
The Green Energy Fee Fund allocated $13,000 for the project as a whole, Freeman said.
The cost of installing the fans, the labor and the cost of the fans themselves is estimated to cost about $12,000. The remaining $1,000 is set aside for educating students about the project and becoming more environmentally aware through signs and events, Freeman said.
Sarah Philips, Green Energy Fee education coordinator, is in charge of educating students about what the fee is through mediums such as poster campaigns and the Internet.
The project’s funding came from the quarterly Green Energy Fee. Students are charged 70 cents per credit, for a maximum of $7 per quarter.
Part of the fund goes toward supporting projects such as the Dyson Airblades, Freeman said. The other portion goes toward Renewable Energy Credits, which offset Western’s energy use on campus, Philips said.
The dryers will pay for themselves in about three years. Freeman said the two bathrooms in the basement of Arntzen Hall are estimated to save Western $5,000 annually.
Cabiyo clarified that the current $5,000 estimate is actually “quite conservative.”
“Each hand dryer used in isolation produces nominal savings, but these things are going to be used thousands of times over the course of the year,” Cabiyo said. “When you add it up, it becomes a huge saving.”
Cabiyo’s team will conduct a follow-up study on how effective the Airblades are. They will analyze how cost-effective and energy-efficient they are, Cabiyo said.
The report will be given to Western’s Facilities Management, and the team will pitch the idea of installing more Dyson Airblades around the campus, Cabiyo said.
The Green Energy Fee Program started funding grants in 2010. The program is dedicated to supporting projects that educate students about energy efficiency, decrease Western’s environmental impact and raise awareness about being environmentally conscious, according to its website.
The new hand dryers in Arntzen Hall shoot air with the speed of two tornadoes.
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