Transcripts: Energy Consultant
In my experience, schools aren't eco-friendly enough; they need to teach the children to lead responsible lifestyles. Many of them do not practice what they preach. In most schools, about 20 people are responsible for 80% of the school's energy consumption.
Practical steps that schools can take are things like:
- Creating nature gardens
- Carrying out an energy audit of the school to highlight wastage
- Fitting motion sensors on lights in rooms that aren't used for long (eg. toilets)
- Replacing old fluorescent tubes (50W) with new ones (25 - 30W)
The first places to look to save money are:
- Heating
- Lighting
'Going eco' should not be seen as expensive. The differences will mean savings. Just by switching things off, you can save £6000 - £7000 from lighting bills alone.
There is a lot of waste in all areas of the school, for each degree above 19, 10% of the energy is wasted. ICT suites also produce a large amount of heat. A good idea is to place these on the ground floor to allow them to heat the rooms above through the floor. It is also possible to use the heat from the computers to heat other rooms in different parts of the school. Having separate thermostats for different buildings allows better control of temperatures. Creating a temperature profile of the school can help highlight areas that do not need as much heating. Another good 'green' tip is to install solar panels to heat water that will then heat small blocks. Although this may be expensive at first in the long term, these methods pay back. A good idea is to work out how long each method will take to pay back for itself.
As far as water goes, automatic flushers are good, but make sure that the time interval between flushes is not too small. From Essex and Suffolk water companies it is possible to get free devices that reduce the amount of water needed to flush. This means only 5 - 6 l is used, instead of 9 - 12 l. it is also possible to collect rainwater and use this to flush the toilets.
In schools site managers like the 'green' recognition, however Heads tend to be against it more as they don't like the conflict with fire risk caused by closing doors and over-insulating.
There are sources of funding available for schools, [links to these can be found in the useful links section]
Good ideas include creating a rating system to rate schools in energy efficiency (A - G like appliances).
A 'name and shame' wall at schools, for people wasting energy.
Important messages for the site include:
- Switch it off!
- Keep housekeeping in check
- Bring the possible savings to attention - if the rates double, the payback halves.
Back to Interviews Main Page