Energy Efficiency Improvements – Proven Best Practices from a Peer
Improving energy efficiency is one of the easiest ways to find achieve cost savings. There are many no-cost initiatives that can be implemented by your in-house team to start saving immediately, as well as some projects that do require capital investment but deliver more money back to your budget in savings. Our peer Lisa Randall, Energy Conservation Program Coordinator at Santa Fe Public Schools, shared the following best practices that have helped her district achieve significant savings on our listserv.
Energy Management and Efficiency Best Practices from Lisa Randall of Santa Fe Public Schools:
We began our own internal energy conservation program 18 months ago. I was hired as the Energy Conservation Program Coordinator in the fall of 2010 as a 12 month employee. We specified in the job description that an educator was preferred, though a strong background in facilities was also encouraged. I would argue both are pretty darned essential. Every program is structures differently, but this is what we’ve done.
These are all free in terms of capital investment, and very time consuming in terms of your day:
- Email communication of “sleep mode” or power saving expectations to staff and students; this is for daily, weekend, and vacation periods. (It is important you reach EVERYONE in the organization.)
- A quarterly newsletter (by me) to inform, inspire, and communicate around issues of conservation and sustainability
- Frequent site walk-throughs after these communications, unplugging and turning off etc., and leaving little notes for staff
- Community partnerships that help us promote our conservation initiatives
Additional initiatives:
- Retrofit lighting (our utility co, PNM, has a retrofit/rebate program, and we have received more than $100,000 back in rebates from our retrofits) – call them, and ask what they have for programming.
- Our gas utility, NM Gas Co, also used us in a pilot reduction of use program, and helped us tremendously.
- Benchmarking and tracking use – this is essential, and we use Utility Direct through SchoolDude.
- We changed out all T12 florescent light tubes to high efficiency T8s.
- All high bay sodium and metal halides are switched out to T5s for large areas like gyms and cafeterias, or 34 w LEDs for single high lights.
- All parking lot lights are LED, 34 w, many on motion sensors running at 20% until motion is detected. Some are on solar panels built into the light, and all are on timers if not sensored.
- Door lights at exteriors are light sensored so they come on and go off when actually needed.
- Occupancy/motion sensors in almost all spaces in the schools and office complexes – this takes some real give and take as you figure out placement and timing, and some spaces don’t accommodate a sensor. Most do however. People complain, but they do get used to them if they are placed correctly and timed well.
- Couple your efforts with recycling and connections to the planet and the children’s future. This is about saving money, AND it’s about a future for our kids.
- Get your maintenance staff on board, and hold them accountable to report and fix leaks, energy waste, and other issues they see in their day to day tasks.
- Although you will have a little too much participation at times, ask your staff to be your energy wasting eyes and ears. Even if only 25% of things reported pan out, that’s 25% more than you knew before.
- PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE!!!!!!! It is so under-rated, and so important. Imagine how much harder your equipment is working to force air through clogged filters, or because of loose belts.
- We have 60% of our buildings on automated controls through Delta, and a few Trane, though Trane is not complete yet. Digital controls are expensive, but the remote monitoring and HVAC control allows you to set buildings to unoccupied when they are unoccupied, and not heat and cool unnecessarily. We cannot depend on our site people to comply with our thermostat setting requests, and we are heating and cooling spaces for no reason in our non-Delta controlled schools. We are working towards 100% digitally controlled equipment and thermostats.
- .5 gal per minute aerators on your hand washing sinks
- We spend approx 500,000 a year on natural gas, 750,000 on water, and 1.5 million on electricity, for 2.3 million square feet. Those are not all of our costs, but you see water is our 2nd most expensive utility
- The first 12 months of the program, we reduced electric by 8.2% and gas by 12%. So far this year we’ve captured another 7% in gas, and another 4% in electricity. We’re also using 6% less water.
- This is with a full-time person designated to do this work (me), a cooperative and supportive facilities/operations leadership team, a supportive superintendent, and a capital budget for lighting and HVAC retrofits and upgrades.
This is not an exhaustive list. We have lots more to do, and we would not have realized a quarter of our savings without a designated person in my position, and dollars to invest. You can save a tremendous amount with just the designated person, and focusing on behavior. But the dollars help enormously!!
Lisa Randall – Energy Conservation Program Coordinator - Santa Fe Public Schools, NM