Giving You the Power

Wolfedale believes in “Giving You the Power” to make informed decisions around the electrical systems within your facilities. We do this by increasing your efficiency, improving safety on your sites, minimizing your downtime and reducing your risk. We believe our competitive advantage encompasses:

Our ability. To help our clients have the “power to choose”.
Wolfedale Electric’s goal is to work efficiently and effectively to address your electrical needs. Our Service Department achieves at 96% response rate to all emergency calls within a two hour window. We strive to ensure we are on time and within your budget. In our New Construction Design Build department, we implement a value engineering step to ensure we are maximizing your dollars to the best of our ability. Within all of our departments, we ensure the work is done right the first time. Our warranty costs are essentially nonexistent, with a rate of 2/100 of 1% being the costs we have spent to repair work done in the past three years.

Our people. We believe in giving them the “ power to grow”.

Our employees are qualified Electricians and Apprentices and we encourage them to learn a wide range of disciplines to assist in virtually every technical area of our clients’ needs. Our employees receive ongoing training in all aspects of electrical safety including health & safety regulations, safety equipment, arc flash hazards and more. This ensures the safest possible work environment for our customer’s job sites and facilities. For the past 2 years, our WSIB rate was 91% above industry average in Ontario (July 2011).

Our vendors. We believe in the “power of partnerships”.
Our vendors share our goal of customer satisfaction. They go the extra mile to work with Wolfedale to support our customers’ needs and we truly appreciate their support. Whether it’s equipment delivery dates or access to parts for emergency calls, our relationships are based on partnerships which ensure overall success for everyone. Our top 3 suppliers have been the same for more than 20 years.

Our industry. Wolfedale believes in the “power of co-operation”.

We help to improve standards across our industry by working cooperatively with the Ontario Electrical League and the Electrical Safety Authority. We keep up with incentive programs within our industry and bring you opportunities for savings. In our lighting retrofit department, we have been able to help our clients find over $800,000.00 in incentive money from the local programs with the Ontario Power Authority. https://www.saveonenergy.ca/Business/Program-Overviews/Retrofit-for-Commercial.aspx

Dial One Wolfedale’s philosophy is simple: we give you the power to make informed decisions. We provide you with highly skilled professionals that determine the safest and most efficient approach to completing each job. We offer you our services at a competitive price and we do your work right – the first time, every time.

Isn’t it time you got the Power?

As Your Company "Grows Up"

As your company “grows up”, so will your need for improved budgeting and financial planning tools. The more departments, products, services, and people you have, the more complicated it is to pull together a budget.

At Wolfedale Electric, we spend a great deal of time planning for the future. We make strategic and operations plans, and turn them into the financial budget that is necessary to track results against. Typically I would develop our annual budget in Excel. This was becoming increasingly difficult as the Excel model grew with the complexity of our business. It became hard to maintain the integrity of all the formulas, links, and pages. One mistake, omission, or accidental deletion would cause the account level details to not roll up properly. Finding the problem was often like finding a needle in a haystack.
Another shortcoming was that our budget was an annual budget - twelve months long. It became progressively near sighted as each month of the fiscal year went by. That makes little sense when your business planning is continuous and should always be looking out at least a year.

Lastly, our budget was only about sales, margin, expenses, and net income. What about assets, liabilities, and equity? There are some important things in there. Like cash!

I’m excited to have found a solution. It’s Budget Maestro from Centage Corporation. This slick software has some great features. It has a five year planning horizon. It’s integrated so the budget details are in the budget itself, not on separate working papers. It’s inherently accurate with no formulas to worry about. It uses a double entry (debit and credit) basis to automatically budget the balance sheet. Enter a budget expense item and the software makes the correct balance sheet entry! It has features for personnel expenses, assets and sales. You can budget increases on just about any basis. Want widget sales to increase 2 % a quarter over the next three years? Done! “What- if” scenarios are built in. Need a Plan B because your business situation is changing? No sweat!

Like most new business applications, it came with a considerable learning curve. I have put a lot of hours into understanding how it works and recently developing my first budget in it. I’m happy I can see the top of the curve now and its actually becoming easy. And it still has so many untapped capabilities.

If your company has outgrown doing its budget on a table napkin, spreadsheet, or whatever, I encourage you to look for a solution, and you might want to look at this one. At first sight it’s a bit pricey at about $4,000. But you can expect this to pay off in time savings, and better business planning - which means better business results. So if you can find it in your budget, I think it’s worth it!
Here’s a link to it if you’re interested: http://centage.com/products-budget-maestro-overview.htm

Mark Benson
Controller
Dial One Wolfedale Electric

Giving You the Power.

Safety at Wolfedale – Not Just “Lip Service”

“We’re safety oriented”. “We’re safety focused”. “Safety is our number one priority”. We’ve all heard it before. Companies everywhere assert that safety is a number one priority in their business. But is that true or just lip service?

Let us be honest with you; Wolfedale is in a dangerous industry – period. Electrical work is an inherently dangerous trade to do business in. Electricity can sneak up on you fast and without warning. Electricity does not discriminate based on nationality, nor does it care what the circumstances are or that you’re a great guy and should have a chance to live a long and healthy life. If you do something wrong, you may not get the chance to “learn from your mistake” and do it right in the future. You may be dead.

In the electrical industry today, it's unfortunate that there are still companies out there who just don’t get it. These companies will continue to compromise safety on some jobsites to save a buck and make a profit. These are the companies that the public needs to be aware of and to steer clear of. But how? One safeguard is for companies to check with the Electrical Safety Authority (http://esasafe.com/) and searching the Licensed Electrical Contractor listing to ensure that their contractor of choice has been recognized as a preferred contractor. Any approved contractor listed will have an Electrical Contractor Registration Agency (ECRA) number, which indicates that the contractor has met strict guidelines within the province around quality & safety. http://applications.dmtispatial.com/esa/  And yes, Wolfedale is on that list. Our ECRA number is #7000 658.

So, what does Wolfedale do that’s different? The key difference is that we make a point of doing it. We do regular jobsite inspections, we have weekly safety meetings called Toolbox Talks, we have a Joint Health & Safety Committee with certified members and we have an outside agency that audits us to ensure that we’re doing the right things – right. And we’re introducing a new position to the company in the fall of 2011 in the form of a dedicated Health & Safety Representative to ensure that we’re focused on safety. Are we perfect? No. No one can be. We can always be better and Wolfedale is always striving to improve. And we have been very fortunate to have an employee group who make a point of working safely every day so that they can go home to their families every night. That’s something that they believe in on a personal level and they live it every day.

At Wolfedale, our first core value is Safety and we often say, “Safety First. Safety Always.” Is that just lip service with a catchy phrase to go along with it? I can honestly say that safety is a focus in our company that we believe in and we would be proud to tell you all about it. Give us a call and ask us some questions. We’re happy to share our knowledge.

Allyson Rea
Human Resources Manager/Health and Safety
Dial One Wolfedale Electric
Giving You the Power!

Dial One Wolfedale: PLANNED MAINTENANCE - A MISCONCEPTION?

Dial One Wolfedale: PLANNED MAINTENANCE - A MISCONCEPTION?: More than 30 years ago Wolfedale was called out to an emergency call for a power outage caused by a blown transformer (a critical component...

PLANNED MAINTENANCE - A MISCONCEPTION?

More than 30 years ago Wolfedale was called out to an emergency call for a power outage caused by a blown transformer (a critical component to the operation of the business). After several days of downtime, losses incurred by both the business and customers of the business in the hundredths of thousands of dollars the company was back in operation. From that day forward Wolfedale continues to perform an annual maintenance program with this customer at a mere $2500.00.

Several years ago, we were called in to perform thermal infrared imaging for a business’s electrical distribution system as part of an insurance recommendation. Our technician found a fusible disconnect, overheating, requiring immediate replacement. On the day of the replacement our technicians were not surprised to find the heat built up in this switch caused the fuse to disintegrate on removal. It was fortunate that this switch had not blown during operating hours. The damage could have been catastrophic to workers as well as the impact it would have had on the business.

Do you manage the maintenance of your vehicle? Why? The satisfaction of knowing that a properly maintained vehicle, regular oil changes etc., will increase the longevity of it while reducing your expenses. You have the confidence of knowing that you will continue to get to work, after all, without that paycheck you can’t afford your vehicle and the remainder of items you enjoy.   Wouldn't you like the same piece of mind with your business?

Electrical planned maintenance is an integral part of any business. The primary goal of a scheduled maintenance program is aimed at the prevention of electrical breakdowns and failures as well as ensuring that your facilities electrical systems are operating safely. It is designed to enhance equipment reliability by identifying potentially faulty components and conditions before they actually fail resulting in costly downtime and repairs, and in extreme cases, causing injury to colleagues and friends. The misconception……don’t fix what isn’t broke is just that, a misconception.

So, ask yourself this, how much does 1 hour of unscheduled downtime cost coupled with loss of productivity to you and your customer, the cost of emergency repair services and rush delivery parts? The numbers will speak for themselves.

Dial One Wolfedale Electric Giving You the Power to choose, reliability and safety. We have the knowledge, the tools, and the resources, you have the power to make the choice that works!
Can you afford NOT to have a Planned Maintenance program?

Jason Cunningham
Service Manager
Dial One Wolfedale Electric
905-564-8999

Why We Chose ISO 9001:2000

ISO 9001:2000 is a standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization to help ensure businesses meet the needs of their customers. The number of companies receiving certification by December 2000 was over 450,000. That number more than doubled in December 2009 to 1,064,000. These forms of standardization are a pre-requisite for many businesses to work together in various industries. In order to become certified an external audit by an Accredited Certification Body is performed. These audits are performed every 3 years for recertification.

Developing and managing processes and a corrective/preventive reporting system throughout the company with an internal audit system performed by internally trained staff will help determine which of the processes are working and which need improvement. Non – conformances can be any process not being followed properly, for example; supplier returns not being returned in a timely fashion or not at all. The ISO Committee would review the issues and come up with a new process on how better to deal with supplier returns. The process would be implemented making staff aware of the new process. The process would then be reviewed at a later date to determine its effectiveness. This control of company documents/records as well as monitoring non-conformances creates a more efficient and effective operation providing consistently well above average customer satisfaction.

Dial One Wolfedale Electric became ISO certified in 2001. To date Wolfedale maintains ISO compliancy following and maintaining a quality management system developed specifically for their use throughout the company. Always striving to improve these standard practices allows us to provide our customers with consistently safe and quality workmanship. Dial One Wolfedale Electric Gives the Power  to our customers to choose piece of mind knowing that we are doing our very best to provide them with quality service.

The proof is in the repeat business and the documentation/testimonials received from our customers on a job well done or a thank you for getting the job done on time and on budget!

Monica Mercer
Administrative Assistant
Dial One Wolfedale Electric
Giving You the Power!

History of Solar

The ancient Greek and Native Americans were the first to use solar power to their benefit, dating back as early as 400BC. It wasn’t until 1776 that the first solar collector was built by a gentleman named Horace de Saussare.

It was during the later half of the 1950’s that solar power saw its first mainstream usage. The first solar water heated office building was built during this time by an architect named Frank Bridgers.
Later there was a process that produced pure crystalline silicone and by 1954 Bell Telephone Laboratories had developed a silicon photovoltaic cell that had a four percent efficiency that was later boosted to an 11% efficiency.

Solar power saw a rebirth in the 1970’s with the oil embargo. This was a great opportunity to utilize solar power; in fact the US Department of Energy financed the Federal Photovoltaic Utilization Program. This program was responsible for the installation and testing of over 3,000 photovoltaic systems.

Germany is one of the world's top photovoltaics (PV) installers, with a solar PV capacity as of 2010 of almost 17,000 megawatts (MW). The German solar PV industry installed 7,400 MW from nearly one-quarter million individual systems in 2010, and solar PV provided 12 TWh (billion kilowatt-hours) of electricity in 2010, about 2% of total electricity.
Some market analysts expect this could reach 25 percent by 2050

Germany has also taken the bold step to begin eliminating their dependence on Nuclear Powered energy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced the country will move to phase out all nuclear power by 2022.

Solar power in the United States is an area of considerable activity and there are many utility-scale solar power plants. The largest solar power installation in the world is the Solar Energy Generating Systems facility in California, which has a total capacity of 354 megawatts (MW). Nevada Solar One is a solar thermal plant with a 64 MW generating capacity, located near Boulder City, Nevada. The Copper Mountain Solar Facility is a 48 MW photovoltaic solar power facility in Boulder City, Nevada. The DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center is a 25 MW photovoltaic solar power facility in DeSoto County, Florida.

The Blythe Solar Power Project is a 500 MW photovoltaic power station under construction in Riverside County, California. The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility is a 392 MW solar thermal power facility which is under construction in south-eastern California. The Solana Generating Station is a 280 MW solar power plant which is under construction about 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Phoenix, Arizona. There are plans to build many other large solar plants in the United States. Governor Jerry Brown has signed legislation requiring California's utilities to get 33 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by the end of 2020.

In October 2009, the Ontario government launched the feed-in tariff (FIT) and microFIT programs. This program is the first of its kind in North America to encourage the development of clean renewable energy. The FIT program is intended for installations over 10 kW, while the microFIT program is to encourage the development of micro-scale renewable energy projects, such as residential solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. The microFIT program provides a rate of $0.802/kWh for rooftop mounted solar panels. On July 2nd, 2010 the microFIT's program rate was lowered to $0.588/kWh by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA). This new rate means consumers investing in solar energy through the Ontario MicroFit Program will experience a drop in profit margin from a 25% range to 10%.

Thanks to the Ontario FIT program, Canada is the home of the largest solar farm in the world (as of October 2010). Located in Sarnia, Ontario, the 80 megawatt Sarnia Photovoltaic Power Plant can power more than 12,000 homes.
Ontario may become the leading market for solar PV in North America in 2011, installing more than 400 MW of solar power. This would be nearly double that installed by California in 2010. With contracts on the books, Ontario is expected to reach 2,650 MW of solar PV by 2015.

500KW Rooftop Solar Array in Woodstock Ontario

80 MW Solar farm in Sarnia Ontario

“We possess the intelligence, courage, determination, and technology available to sustain many changes to our physical world for our children and generations to follow”
What are you doing to show our children the way? Stand Up for SOLAR!

Brian Cook
Senior Solar Expert
Dial One Wolfedale Electric
905-564-8999 ext 223
Giving You the Power!... to Change