Call for Vendors of Water Cooler Timers

Posted August 15, 2013

Hawaii Energy, the energy efficiency and conservation program for Hawaii, Honolulu and Maui counties, today opened a call for vendors to participate in a new upstream water cooler timer business offering that is slated to launch this fall. The offering will be available to businesses that are on commercial electricity rate schedules P, J or G.

“Our goal for this upcoming offering is two-fold,” said Ray Starling, Hawaii Energy Program Director. “We want to promote simple, yet practical measures such as timer installations that can help businesses instantly achieve savings on their electric bills. Additionally, we hope that the adoption of energy-saving behaviors will extend from the workplace to households across the state.”

Many businesses have water coolers that are plugged in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A standard hot and cold water cooler can use more electricity than a large refrigerator. Installing a plug-in timer can reduce electricity use by up to 50 percent (or about 350 kilowatt hour (“kWh”) annually, which is over $100 in electricity cost per year based on $0.30/kWh). Similar to timers used to control lights in a home, plug-in appliance timers allow for pre-programming of times when various appliances are turned on. For example, a water cooler timer can be pre-programmed to turn on one hour before the office opens and turn off when the office closes for the day.

For vendors to participate in this upcoming offering, the timers must be digital, as well as include an internal rechargeable battery and 7-day programmable on/off settings. Timer vendors will be responsible for identifying and contracting directly with water cooler companies to install timers on customer water coolers. Installation of the timers will be incentivized 100 percent by Hawaii Energy (up to $15 per timer).

For more information, interested vendors can contact Hawaii Energy at HawaiiEnergy@leidos.com and (808) 839-8880 or (877) 231-8222 (toll-free).