Energy Efficiency

Thorndon Primary School Energy Assessment Case Study

Genesis Energy recently undertook an energy assessment at Thorndon Primary School in Wellington as part of the company's staff volunteering programme.

The objectives of the energy audit were:

  1. To determine where and how electricity and gas is used in the school and to determine if there are ways of using them more efficiently.
  2. To encourage the involvement of the whole school community in understanding energy use patterns and working together to increase efficiency.
  3. For Thorndon Primary School to develop an action plan to implement the activities and measures identified to improve their energy efficiency.

Thorndon Primary School has kindly allowed Genesis Energy to present the recommendations from this assessment as they are recommendations that can be used by any school in New Zealand wishing to reduce their energy consumption.

Assessment Recommendations

Set up a management programme:

A utilities management programme should be set in place with energy being one utility that is managed under that programme. The below shortcut is for businesses setting up a policy but can be adapted for a school situation.

Develop An Energy Management Policy

A school energy (or utilities) champion will need to be found, preferably one who has an interest in this area.

Getting staff and students involved and interested in the energy management programme will lead to far greater results and a programme that has longevity!
Figure 1: Good use of daylight in the classrooms at Thorndon Primary School helps keep energy costs down and makes for a pleasant learning environment for the students.

As part of the utilities management programme, energy efficiency objectives need to be developed into an overall energy management strategy. This strategy then needs to be communicated to all those who will be implementing it as this will also require their buy in. Developing staff expertise and new management tools takes time as does changing habits. However, some degree of energy awareness will typically generate an immediate 1 to 3% operational savings.

Distribution of school-specific energy information to school staff and students is essential. Those that have an interest should have ready access to their school's energy cost information. Without this information, all interested parties will be unable to identify progress or deterioration of the school's energy performance.

Run an awareness and motivation programme:

The shortcut below takes you to a programme that has been designed for work places, but this can be easily adapted for a school situation.

Staff Awareness and Motivation

Good use of daylight in the classrooms at Thorndon Primary School helps keep energy costs down and makes for a pleasant learning environment for the students.
Figure 2: Getting staff and students involved and interested in the energy management programme will lead to far greater results and a programme that has longevity!

Educating and motivating staff and students about energy efficiency in the school situation will be an effective way of winning worthwhile savings for relatively low cost. This has been proven in other small New Zealand businesses and in those businesses it has also been found crucial in creating long-term and sustainable change.

Involving staff and students in an energy management programme can have other benefits too, both children and adults enjoy being involved in a challenge that has rewards for the whole community, as what is learned at school can be directly transferred to home.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

Monthly bills are an imprecise way of monitoring data and do not provide adequate feedback. Ideally, several students should be involved in taking twice daily readings of the electricity meter, one before school starts, and the other when school finishes. This will show how much of the electricity is consumed during school hours and how much is used after hours and overnight. Ideally the principal or whoever leaves the school last in the evening would also take a meter reading to break energy usage down even further. The gas meter can be read during the winter heating period.

Doing baseline readings for a few days before implementing any changes is recommended. By reporting the findings to the school community in the form of a large, prominently displayed graph, would be a powerful way to communicate the energy saving potential that good practice can have.

The electricity meter can also be a very powerful tool for sceptics to demonstrate how much power 40 computers actually use. Measuring power consumption while all computers are turned off and then again when they are turned on is generally an eye-opener. Similarly, having all the lights on in the school vs. all the lights off will work very well.

Education Campaign

LCD screens in the library are an excellent use of new technology to reduce energy consumption.
Figure 3: LCD screens in the library are an excellent use of new technology to reduce energy consumption.

Clearly, from the point of view of electricity consumption, computer use and light use are very important at this school. An effective campaign that empowers people to make energy wise choices will enable large monetary and greenhouse gas emissions savings.

An effective energy management plan must include an education campaign that is carefully designed to give students and teachers the necessary information to make wise choices on the use of lights and computers. De-bunking the common myths that turning off lights or computers is bad for them and then showing real energy saving after implementation.

Ten things you can do now at no or little cost to reduce your energy use are1:

  1. Heating - check operating times and adjust them to better reflect actual need
  2. Heating - check temperature set points and adjust to appropriate levels
  3. Heating - keep windows shut when the heating is on and certainly shut them at the end of each day
  4. Lighting - switch off lights at the end of every lesson and at the end of the day, thus a positive decision to switch on lights is made at the start of each lesson
  5. Lighting - appoint pupil monitors to inspect communal areas such as toilets and cloakrooms and switch off lights if they are not needed
  6. ICT - switch off monitors and PCs at the end of the day and only switch them back on again as they are required
  7. ICT - enable standby and power down facilities on all equipment, particularly shared equipment such as printers and copiers
  8. Electrical equipment - inspect the school to determine what electrical equipment can be switched off overnight. Examples include any drinking provision (hot and chilled water), ICT equipment, vending machines with non perishable goods and lights. Label them with green stickers to help staff identify equipment that can be switched off
  9. Monitoring - keep track of monthly meter readings and present this in graphical format to make it easier to identify changes in use that may indicate wasteful practices
  10. Install 7 day timers (available from all good DIY stores) on equipment that continues to be left on unnecessarily

1 Sustainable Learning : Sources of energy