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Showroom Contest

ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN

HOW TO ENTER: For a chance to win a monthly prize, complete a ballot every time you visit the Mr. Plumber showroom located at 293 Allen Street, Charlottetown.

ELIGIBILITY: Enter as often as you wish.  No purchase necessary.  No age limit.  Entries will be drawn on the month they are received.  Entries that are incomplete or illegible will not be accepted.

WINNER NOTIFICATION:  One winner will be selected randomly at the end of each calendar month and he/she will be notified by email within five (5) business days.  The prize is completely non-refundable and has no cash value.

LIST OF WINNERS: To obtain a winner’s list, please send a self-addressed envelope to Mr. Plumber, 293 Allen Street, Charlottetown, PE, C1A 2W1

DISCLAIMER/OTHER REQUIREMENTS: All entrants, as condition of entry, consents to grant Mr. Plumber permission to use his/her name and a possible photograph in connection with in-house advertising, promotional and marketing material.

PRIVACY POLICY:  All personal details provided will not be sold or given out in any way, shape or form and will be used solely to inform clients of upcoming specials or promotions.  (Entrants can request to be deleted from Mr. Plumber data base at any time.) 

Mr. Plumber can modify these official rules in any way or at any time as long as Mr. Plumber gives reasonable notice.

Women are entering careers in trades and technology.
by Heidi Riley
Reprinted with permission from
The Employment Journey
www.employmentjourney.com

Grant Smith, manager of Mr. Plumber in Charlottetown, supervised Carrie MacDonald as she began the process of Apprenticeship in the plumbing trade this summer.

Trade HERizons, a program coordinated by Women’s Network PEI, helps women explore and enter careers in trades and technology. They help women address the barriers they may face in entering training and non-traditional workplaces.

During the course of the program, participants are helped to:

• learn about trades and technology programs
• visit work sites and college classrooms
• write resumés and cover letters
• create a portfolio of past work and personal accomplishments
• research the labour market
• connect to community resources that can help with child care and living expenses
• make college and loan applications
• identify learning disabilities
• find affordable housing and transportation
• meet with educators and potential employers.

On the job training and support
Project staff continue to support participants as they complete post-secondary training and connect with employers.

“Many past participants are working on their Apprenticeships, in training, or have found employment in a wide variety of careers,” says Catherine Ronahan, Project Coordinator, Trade HERizons. “Fields include cabinet making/woodworking, plumbing, welding, carpentry, information technology, bioscience, contact centre support, food service, landscaping, and corrections.”

A participant’s story
Carrie MacDonald started in Trade HERizons in January. Program staff encouraged and guided her through the process of getting her driver’s license and earning her GED, two of the many steps necessary to reach her goal.

“The program helped me explore a number of trades,” says Carrie. “When we looked at plumbing, I knew right away that this was the trade for me. I enjoyed it. And I liked the idea of getting out of the shop and being outside. I have always liked fixing things. Plumbing didn’t exactly come naturally, but I felt that I could do it.

“The program staff also encouraged me to write the Holland College admissions test in order to get accepted into the plumbing program.”

Carrie is now a registered Plumbing Apprentice. In April, she started work at Mr. Plumber in Charlottetown, and worked there until the end of August. She earned 597 hours which will be put towards her required number of Apprenticeship hours. In September, she entered the nine-month Plumbing program at the Holland College Georgetown Centre, where she is the only woman in the program.

An employer’s view
“Any opportunity to support women in the trades is of interest to me,” says Grant Smith, Manager of Mr. Plumber in Charlottetown. “There is no reason why women can’t have a trades career. Years ago we took on the first woman Apprentice to enroll in the plumbing program on PEI. I was impressed that she would take on such a male-oriented field. She did her on-the-job training with us, moved out west and went on to earn her Red Seal.”

Mr. Plumber has 34 staff. There are 15 Red Seal plumbers, and five are Apprentices. Five staff are women, including the service manager.

“Some customers do treat female staff differently,” says Grant. “They sometimes ask to talk to one of the guys because they think that a female working here must be a receptionist or administrative assistant. That attitude is slowly changing.”

Grant likes to put new Apprentices through their paces, and Carrie was treated no differently. “I wouldn’t ask a staff member to do anything I wouldn’t do. From sweeping the floors to washing windows and picking up garbage in the parking lot, I do it all.

“I look for employees who were brought up with a great work ethic, are dedicated to their jobs, and are not concerned about missing breaks or lunch. They also need to be able to communicate well with customers and fellow staff. I feel that Carrie will do well, because of the training she got here. The guys have accepted her as part of the group.”

Learning on the job
“At Mr. Plumber, I learned so much, and was treated like any other Apprentice,” says Carrie. “I got my hands dirty doing cleaning, was exposed to inventory control, learned the names of parts, went out on service calls with the plumbers, answered phones and learned clerical and business skills, did sales, and sat in on in-house seminars. I even got my fusion weld aquatherm certificate. It was great. I gained a lot of confidence, and I know I can do this job.

“The first six weeks were rocky as I learned the names of all the parts. There is quite a bit of memory work involved in this job. It was challenging at first to keep all that information in my head, but it seems natural now.

“When I went out on a job with one of the plumbers, one customer assumed I worked in the office and was just helping out.

“Because I’m female, I feel I need to prove myself. If I mess up, it will be noticed and will reflect on other females in the trades. I want to do well for the sake of all women in the trades, and I feel confident I can do it.”

Carrie says her two children, who are five and eight, consider their mother’s career choice to be nothing new. “When they get older, they will realize how cool it is that their mom is a plumber,” says Grant.

For more information about Trade HERizons, call Sara Roach-Lewis at 368-5040 or toll free 1-888-362-7373. E-mail: sara@wnpei.org
Visit Facebook and search for Trade HERizons-Women’s Network PEI.

Renewable Energy Systems

Case Study:  Mr. Plumber and The Economic Case for Reducing Electric Water Heater Standby Losses.

Background: The relatively low initial cost of upright storage style residential electric water heaters makes them an attractive choice as a means to provide domestic hot water. Additionally, as their operation does not involve the combustion of fuels, they do not require on-site fuel storage or external venting.

Challenge: Because  water heaters maintain a specified volume of water at temperatures typically no less than 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius), storage style water heaters continually lose heat through their internal insulation jacket (the space between the tank and the external metal casing) to the surrounding area. This heat loss is known as standby loss and is commensurate with the surface area of the tank, the temperature differential (i.e., the difference in temperature between the water and the ambient air), and the level of insulation of the internal jacket.

In response to the rising cost of conventional energy or by using renewable energy sources, manufacturers are producing water heaters with improved thermal storage characteristics. However, when standby losses are considered over the expected service life of a water heater, the cost of these losses can still exceed the initial cost of the water heater. The purpose of this project was to determine the economic viability of reducing the standby energy loss of a 151-litre upright storage style residential electrical water heater by wrapping it with an after-market insulation jacket.  Two types of jackets were used – a reflective insulation jacket and a fibreglass insulation jacket.

Result:

Each jacket was monitored over a 7-day period.  The reflective insulation jacket reduced standby loss by 10.9 percent, provided a simple payback of 3.1 years and a return on investment of 32.7 percent. The fibreglass insulation jacket reduced standby loss by 33.9 percent, provided a simple payback of 1.4 years and a return on investment of 70.1 percent.  While the economic case is strong for the reflective insulation jacket, it is considerably stronger for the fibreglass insulation jacket therefore making it a better investment.

“At Mr. Plumber we are trying to do our part to protect the environment. We feel that every small step made by individuals and companies can make a collective difference.”

Glen Gardiner, Mr. Plumber/Blair LaPierre Inc.  www.mrplumber.ca

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St.Dunstans_B10_Case_Study

Mr. Plumber is currently seeking highly motivated sales / marketing person to join our growing team of professionals. Primary duties are selling all aspects of kitchen and bathroom fixtures, while continually gaining knowledge of the latest products, suppliers and trends in the industry.

We are seeking someone that is dependable with strong ethics and has great salesmanship ability. Demonstrate creativity and communicate through social media. Creating and marketing sale materials, promotions and events.

Has an attitude of service, good sense of humor, a keen memory for names, positive and outgoing personality who wants to be part of a professional team. Is eager to meet and exceed objectives and take on more responsibility.

We offer competitive wages, benefits and a professional atmosphere. Serious applicants only are invited to submit resume to:

Heather@mrplumber.ca

Mr. Plumber

293 Allen St.

Charlottetown, PE C1A 2W1

If you haven’t seen the new Kohler line up in our showroom yet you need to stop by.  There are some very amazing products to choose from.

While you are in our Showroom, drop a ballot off for a chance to win one of our monthly prizes.  No purchase necessary.

Congratulations to the Mr. Plumber team for winning the PEI Construction Association Curling Funspiel.  A big thank you to Jeremy Doucette for “sweeping” the team to victory !

Mr Plumber/Kohler staff get ready to show off our new lines to local Designers.

The food and refreshments were great !

Everyone got to see the new products

Thank you too all who attended and the Ladies from Kohler for helping out.  Look forward to more Showroom launches coming soon !

One can’t help but notice fuel costs have been inching upwards in the last few weeks.  Short of moving to a warmer climate or wearing arctic wear inside our homes what can we do? Lowering the thermostat only works for so long.  Eventually things freeze.

For the past number of decades we have enjoyed relatively inexpensive fuel to heat our homes, our water and to power our many combustion engines.  Even back in the 1970’s there were plenty of warnings that we were running out.  Today we are even extracting oil from the tar sands to meet our growing needs.  Whether we are on the verge of running out or not, the unavoidable truth is we will be paying more for our energy.  We may not like it, and we may complain but it isn’t going to stop the increases.  Oil is a commodity and like all commodities, supply and demand will govern the price.  We want more and there is less.

Europeans have been dealing with these higher costs for many years.  One only need look at their homes and communities to see the model we need to reduce our dependence.  They took a proactive approach to reduce consumption.  It seems in North America, we are trying to find new sources of energy to waste, rather than reduce the amount we use.

There have been many, very highly efficient systems available to us for a number of years now, however the higher costs associated with these have deterred many from replacing their fuel hungry appliances.  It may take even higher fuel prices to make these options look inviting.

Geo-exchange heating and cooling ( erroneously called Geothermal ), has been around for a while now and has proven to be a very cost effective way of using electricity to heat and cool our homes.  That’s right, I said “use electricity”.  A lot of people aren’t aware that Geo-exchange is really electric heat, albeit very efficient electric heat.  When using ground source geo-exchange it can be four times as efficient as electric resistance heating, but one has to consider the cost of electricity carefully when comparing systems.

If you are currently heating your home and hot water using oil, there are many systems today that can reduce your consumption by as much as 50%, depending on your current system.  Most North American hot water heating systems utilize boilers that operate on a high low Aquastat.  The burner runs until the water in the boiler reaches a predetermined set-point, then shuts off until the water in the boiler cools to the lower Aquastat setting.  This continues 24 hours a day, 365 days a year whether your home needs heat or not.  It’s a lot like leaving your car idling in your driveway so it is warm when you need it.  Convenient, but not very efficient.  Using cold start technology means your burner will only run when there is a heating demand.  A very simple concept, but until now we preferred convenience over efficiency and fuel costs weren’t really a concern.

Oil or gas fired domestic hot water heaters are another big consumer of costly fuels.  Using an indirect water heater connected to your boiler can cut costs drastically.  Even on demand water heating solutions can save you money.

So why aren’t we all taking advantage of these systems.  The answer seems to be cost.  We look at the capital cost of replacing our current system and it seems like we are wasting money.  What we really need to examine is how long it will take to recover those costs.  Keep in mind when considering these costs that while eventually you will pay down the installation price, the savings will continue for as long as you use these systems.  The higher fuel costs climb the more you will be saving.  Should we yell and scream for cheaper fuels or find ways to use the energy we have more wisely?  I think we all know which will actually work.