Five top tips to help schools and colleges cut their energy bills
The energy crisis means colleges are facing higher energy bills than ever.
With Government support for employers set to be restricted after next month, it has never been more important for the further education (FE) sector to put a proactive energy plan into action for the winter ahead.
For most schools and colleges, this means exploring ways of cutting energy waste and investing in energy generation solutions such as on-site solar.
Many headteachers and principals will fear the cost of change but there are steps that can be taken at low cost, without lengthy planning, to provide immediate savings for schools and colleges. From modifying behaviour to generating your own energy on-site, here are the key steps all schools and colleges can explore immediately:
- Measurement
UK education buildings waste £860 million in energy annually. Too many schools and colleges are wasting energy needlessly because they have no way of knowing when, where and how they are consuming energy. As the saying goes, you can’t manage what you don’t measure.
Measurement solutions, such as eEnergy’s MY ZeERO, allow decision-makers to see how much electricity is spent in which parts of their premises, as well as the cost in pounds and pence of each area. Having the data also allows the school to assess the efficiency of their existing technologies.
For example, data and insights gained from the energy measurement platform have helped multi-school trusts to see where learners and staff are misusing elevators, which lights are being left on overnight, and how much they spend on individual technologies such as air conditioning or servers.
For one school in London, installing MY ZeERO technology allowed them to identify the misuse of their elevator was becoming a major cost. By preventing unnecessary use, it saved £2,000 per year to put back towards key costs.
- Behaviour
Once you can see where energy is being wasted, you can translate insights into practical action.
Behaviour change consistently figures as one of the most effective ways to keep schools and colleges’ energy bills down. Small changes across an entire workforce and learning cohort can save thousands of pounds every year.
There are savings to be made in plain sight; remarkably, on average colleges use 25% of their total energy when they are closed providing a series of easily actionable wins. Simply turning off lights and turning down HVAC systems outside of school hours can lead to dramatic cost reductions.
Measurement can also help identify more surprising behavioural changes to support colleges’ bottom lines. Whether it is managing elevator access or ensuring that machinery and hardware are turned off, these changes can be implemented immediately once the cost-saving opportunity has been identified through measurement.
- Efficiency
Energy inefficiency in school and college buildings contributes to the hundreds of millions of pounds of lost energy every year.
Out of date technology and equipment can be a major drain on resources.
For example, traditional lighting systems use up to 65% more energy than modern LED technology. By switching to LED lighting, colleges could save a significant amount on their overall annual electricity bill as lighting accounts for 20-25% of most school’s energy bills.
A school in Cheshire have recently installed a new LED lighting system which is expected to reduce energy costs by £470,000 over ten years, enough to pay the salary of an extra full-time teacher for more than 10 years. This will also save 614 tonnes of CO2e over ten years, the equivalent of taking 25 additional medium-sized cars off the road each year.
Combined with the assistance of granular energy measurement technology, college leaders can also see the comparative savings in real time.
- Energy generation
In the face of extreme volatility in the price of energy, education settings are increasingly opting to generate their own power.
Generating your own solar power on-site can cost half the market price for electricity. So, it’s unsurprising that schools are increasingly deciding to utilise their large estates to generate their own solar power.
One of the latest educational institutes to see the light, a multi academy trust in north-east England, have recently signed up to a long-term solar project that is expected to provide incredible ten-year savings of £704,000, enough to fund more than 10 FE College students every year.
Once installed solar has the ability to provide immediate cost-reductions for schools, but with a longer installation time, schools should act fast to ensure they maximise the upcoming summer months and crucially have their own generation in place ahead of next winter.
- Revenue generation
Finally, schools and colleges are also realising the potential to monetise on-site energy solutions – typically, in the form of electric vehicle charging points for public use on school premises.
As electric vehicles continue to hit the road, the need for charge points is constantly increasing. Today there are 17 electric vehicles on UK roads for every public charge point. With staff, parents, students and local community members increasingly shifting to drive electric in the years ahead, rapid installation provides a revenue stream for colleges that will continue to thrive for years to come.
Energy efficiency has become a necessity in the FE sector, schools and colleges need to be having a conversation about what they can do to handle their energy waste. With these five steps, schools and colleges can make a start on improving their energy management, reducing their energy bills, and lowering their carbon footprint. I am determined to ensure that they can do this through a subscription model with no upfront cost.
By Harvey Sinclair, CEO eEnergy
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