New online laundry system conserves energy and students' time
September 19, 2007
Digging up quarters and making repeated trips to the laundry room to check the progress of washer and dryer loads are problems of the past for students at the University of Richmond.
A recent $75,000 renovation project upgraded all campus laundry facilities to operate through e-Suds, an online laundry system. The system monitors availability and progress of machines which students can check on the campus network. The installation of energy-efficient front-loading washers and dryers will save energy and an estimated one million gallons of water per year.
Students can go online to check availability of washers and dryers in each residence hall's laundromat. Instead of quarters, students who live on campus swipe their identification cards to activate and pay for the wash and dry cycles—coin activation is still available for all other users. If a student wants to check the status of a load of laundry, he or she can view online how much time remains instead of running back and forth to check the machine. The system e-mails or text-messages students when each cycle finishes.
"This is the Cadillac of laundry systems," says Dee Hardy, director of food and auxiliary services at Richmond. "We visited half a dozen schools in the mid-Atlantic area to research the laundry services offered by three different companies, and our new provider was the best in customer service and creativity."