There are literally hundreds of things that you, your staff and students can do every day to save energy within your schools – here are our top four tips for saving energy…and some helpful hints on how to make sure these things are being done every day in your whole school district!
What:Turn out the lights anytime you leave a room.
How:Make the students responsible! Make it a classroom job and assign an official “energy monitor” each day or week. Ask a student group, such as JNHS/NHS, Student Council, before/after school care or an environmental or science club to monitor the building. Let them do periodic checks to be sure that lights are not being left on in common areas that are empty, such as gyms, cafeterias and work rooms.
What:Shut down computers nightly.
How: Get your IT department involved. If it’s not being done already, ask your IT team to implement a district-wide shut down sweep sometime after school hours. Even if this isn’t done until 8 or 9pm, it’s still saving a ton of energy compared to having computers left on all night …or during weekends and holidays!
What:Run your buildings at the optimal temperature (set points) for energy efficiency.
How:Talk to your building operators. Have them set your building to between 68° – 70° F during heating season, and between 76° – 78° F during cooling season. If this feels like a drastic change, try adjusting by just a degree or two. For every 1° you adjust by, you will save 1% on your energy bill!
What: Reduce plug load.
How:Start by doing a plug-load audit of your building. How many things are plugged in 24/7 in the average classroom? In the staff room? In the administrative areas? How many of these things are being used all day? Are they essential for teaching, learning or staff job duties? Are there mini-fridges, space heaters or other personal appliances throughout your building? Start by simply asking people to unplug items that are not in use. The biggest energy-wasting culprits are the ones that have a constant display, such as microwaves with clocks or SMARTboard projectors with an indicator light that tells you it’s “off.” Next, provide power-strips if possible. These allow several items to be plugged into one outlet and unplugged all at once. Power strips are ideal for things such as chargers, task lamps and printers that don’t need to stay plugged in overnight. Finally, ask folks to do away with things like personal appliances, mini-fridges and space heaters. These are major energy hogs and end up costing your school a lot of money in wasted energy.
The most important thing to remember when doing any of these things is to communicate, communicate, communicate!
Be sure you are conveying to your staff not only the action or behavior you’d like to see from them, but why it’s beneficial and how it will help save energy. Go a step further by doing some fun calculations to find out how much energy and money will be saved through simply changes such as shutting down computers or lowering the lights!