Our department tries hard to do as much vehicle maintenance and
repairs in house as possible. With that said, our mechanic/AC
convinced our board to allow him to purchase an oil-burning furnace for the shop. The cost is a bit high up front but will help overall in the long run.

Previously, when doing maintenance, all fluids were put into 55-gallon drums, and then the department paid to have the waste fluids hauled off. With the furnace, we are not paying to have as much hauled off. Instead, we are able to burn them efficiently, and reduce the overall electric bill.

We previously heated the shop with six electric fan heaters mounted on the walls. We had an electrician test their draw and were blown away to find out that one electric fan heater pulled about 10 times as much electric as our oil furnace. So we now burn the oil from many of our own guys, as well as locals that give us their oil, too. The oil furnace heats the shop better by itself than the six electric ones we had before.

— Submitted by Capt. Eric Standley Boles Fire Protection District, Labadie, Mo.

There are a number things that can be done to help stations go green. For more suggestions, click here.

Already green? Share your department's green tips with our readers.