Save Some Energy, Help the Environment to Become Cleaner!
Today we all know that the energy production industry is detrimental to environment and our health. Therefore, it is important that we start taking actions to stop the damages that are being caused. One of the easiest things that we can do is to use energy more efficiently at our homes, schools, and work places.
Most of energy produced today comes from burning fossil fuels. In Minnesota, 75% of our electricity comes from the burning of coal. Coal burning contributes to sulfur dioxide emissions, which cause smog and acid rain formation, and promote asthma attacks. Coal powered plants are also the biggest source of fine particulate matter, which increases the risk of death from heart and lung diseases. In addition, coal is the largest source of mercury pollution in Minnesota. Mercury that gets released into the air ends up in lakes and rivers and contaminates the fish that we eat. Higher levels of mercury are particularly dangerous for pregnant women and children [1]. Thus, the more energy we consume, the more environmental and health damages we cause. One way of trying to decrease these damages is to make our energy consumption more efficient. Don't forget that in the long run by becoming more energy efficient, you not only save the environment and your health but also your money!
What Can You Do at Your School?
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Replace the Lights
One of the easiest ways to start conserving energy would be to replace all of the incandescent lighting that you might still have in your school with fluorescent lighting. Why is that? What is so special about fluorescent lights that makes them more energy efficient than the regular incandescent bulbs? To answer these questions lets take a brief look at how an incandescent bulb works. A very thin filament is located inside of a glass sphere of a regular incandescent bulb. As electricity runs through the filament, it offers great resistance to current flow because of being so thin. This resistance causes electrical energy to turn into heat. The heat is so high that it turns the filament white and this whiteness is what causes the bright light to come out of the bulb. Thus, the heat causes the bulb to glow [2]. The problem of this process is that it takes a lot of energy to produce heat, most of which gets wasted at the end. Due to huge losses of heat, incandescent bulbs are usually considered energy inefficient. The light that we get from an incandescent bulb per watt of input power is only worth around 15 lumens [3, 4].
When compared to incandescent lights, fluorescent lights are considered to be more energy efficient. The amount of light generated per watt of power from a fluorescent bulb ranges from 50 to 100 lumens [5]. Fluorescent bulbs are considered more energy efficient because the amount of heat lost during light creation process is minimal. The light that gets generated from a fluorescent bulb, is created due to the light released by particles called photons, which in turn are released from a stream of exited electrons, which float through the fluorescent light tube. As a result, there is almost no heat produced during the light generation process. For a more detailed description of how a fluorescent light works visit: http://home.howstuffworks.com/question236.htm; or http://home.howstuffworks.com/fluorescent-lamp.htm.
There are different types of fluorescent bulbs that you can choose as a replacement for incandescent bulbs. The ones that are thought to conserve the most energy are called compact fluorescent lights (CFL) and T8 tube fluorescent lights. CFL have a variety of shapes and are designed to fit everything from regular desk lamps to ceiling fixtures. They save up to 75% of energy compared to incandescent lights. They have a lifetime that is longer by nearly 13 times, and they provide the same light output [6]. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) states that a 27 watt CFL has a life of 1642.5 days (4.5 years). Compare this to a 100 watt incandescent bulb that has a lifetime of only 167 days. Annual energy costs with a 27 watt CFL come out to be $5.91, compared to $21.90 generated by a 100 watt incandescent bulb. According to DOE the number of CFLs replaced in 4.5 years is 0, that number is 10 for incandescent bulbs. As a result, the amount of savings over a lamp lifetime that you end up with, if you use CFL, amount to $62.95 [7].
T8 tube fluorescent lights present another option for switching to fluorescent lights. T8s use the latest technology to reduce your electricity consumption and thus not only conserve energy but also save you some money. T8s are proven to be more energy and money efficient even when compared to a more conventional T12 fluorescent lights. T8s are said to use up to 32% less energy than T12s. [8].
It has been shown that fluorescent lamps are 6 to 10 times more efficient than regular incandescent lights. Thus, even though initially you might have to pay more per bulb than you used to, in the long run, you will save more money due to less frequent replacements and lower energy consumption [9]. Just to give you an idea of how much you would pay per fluorescent bulb here are some retail prices obtained from Office Depot and www.bulbs.com:
Type Wattage Lumens Lumens per Watt Average Rated Life Price Source GE T8 Fluorescent 18" Tube 15 watts 825 55 7,500 hours $34.99 per six pack; $5.83 per bulb Office Depot GE T12 Fluorescent 24" Tube 20 watts 1,200 60 9,000 hours $37.99 per 6 pack; $6.33 per bulb Office Depot Value Brand, Medium Bipin T8 Low Mercury Fluorescent 36" Tube 25 watts 2,125 85 20,000 hours 16+ Cases $1.99 per bulb www.bulbs.com GE Compact Fluorescent Plug-In Bulb 18 watts 1,200 66.7 10,000 hours $8.49 per bulb Office Depot GE Spiral Compact Fluorescent Bulb 20 watts 1,200 60 8,000 hours $6.49 per bulb Office Depot GE Soft White Light Bulbs (Longlife Incandescent Bulb) 100 watts 1,600 16 1,125 hours $2.99 per two pack Office Depot
So these are some of your choices. Compare the quality, compare the prices, and make your decisions!
To read a success story behind the Park View Middle School in Rhode Island that implemented these kinds of changes visit the Rebuild America web site at: http://www.rebuild.org/sectors/SectorPages/sol_center.asp?MktID=2.
Another option that can help you save energy and money is a Motion Sensitive Lighting system. With motion sensitive lighting your lights will only light up when the detector senses motion. These systems can be installed anywhere in the school building (bathrooms, corridors, staircases).
The easiest way to attract students' and teachers' attention to energy conservation issues would be to use stickers. Make stickers asking people to switch the lights off whenever leaving classrooms, bathrooms etc. This will help to raise greater awareness amongst the members of your school and conserve some energy.
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Insulate your Building
If your school building is an old one it is very possible that it has a lot of cracks, openings by the windows, old insulation system on the ceiling and in the attic. Cracks allow hot air to escape the building and let the cold air in during winter seasons. In summer this can prevent the building from staying cool. Therefore, in the winter as you turn on the heating system, it might be really hard to keep the hot air in the building if there are a lot of gaps that it can escape through. Thus, you keep wasting energy to sustain a constant temperature inside. During summer it might be the case that due to bad a insulation your school building keeps heating up and so you need more energy to run the air conditioning system to keep it cooler. The result is energy inefficiency.
You can save all the additional energy if you improve the insulation of your school building. So what should be done? One necessary thing is to insulate your school's ceilings. This will help you save the energy that you use for both heating and cooling systems. Next step would be to install weather-stripping around all exterior doors and along thresholds. You would also want to seal all the gaps around pipes that connect to the building from the outside. In order to maximize the efficiency of your heating system it is recommended that you clean or replace the air filters in the ventilation system once a month. It is beneficial to seal and insulate ducts that run through unconditioned spaces because if not properly insulated they can waste 25% of the energy used to heat or cool your school building [10]. Something else that you can do might be installing an automated heating system that adjusts the heat to lower temperatures at nights automatically.
These tips are just the starting points. If you convince your school officials to seriously reconstruct your school building and make it more energy efficient please refer them to the Department of Energy Website at: http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/schools/index.cfm?flash=yes. This website will not only walk you through most important things that you should pay attention to while reconstructing your school building, it will also suggest places that sell all the energy efficient equipment that has been approved by the Energy Star and the Department of Energy. Some of the issues that are mentioned on the website are: replacing appliances and equipment, dealing with electricity issues, improving the insulation of your building, replacing your heating and cooling systems with more efficient ones, correctly lighting and daylighting your building, water heating, and many others. You might also look through the Rebuild America sponsored booklet on Energy Design Guidelines for High Performance Schools in Cold and Humid Climates at: http://www.rebuild.org/attachments/SolutionCenter/designguide_coldhumid(2).pdf (pdf). Also, don't forget to visit the Energy Star website for some additional tips at: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=heat_cool.pr_hvac or the Energy Star for K-12 School Districts Websites at: http://energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=k12_schools.bus_schoolsk12.
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Make Landscaping in Your School More Sustainable
Did you know that if you plan landscaping around a building in a sustainable manner, you can cut down on your energy use? In one of its Sustainable Urban Information Series (SULIS), the University of Minnesota says that solar energy that you allow enter through your windows during winters can make up as much as 5-20% of the total energy needed to heat your building. Warm air that leaves your home through cracks and openings, as well as the cold air that comes into the building through the same cracks can end up raising your heating costs and account for 25-40% of the heating requirements. At the same time, unwanted solar heat that enters your building during summer months might increase the energy amount that is needed to cool the temperature inside [11]. If you want to reduce these energy losses, you don't have to re-build your school; you can simply change the landscaping techniques to help you conserve some energy.
To give you some quick tips on what you should be doing in your school garden here are some brief notes [12]:
- Plant trees where they will create windbreaks to block cold winter winds and at the same time allow summer breezes to flow through;
- Increased tree canopy can help you cool the surface area;
- If you shade the west and east windows with trees in summer, you will prevent most of the solar heat entering the building;
- Plan landscaping in such way as to prevent shading the south windows in winter since it is through those windows that most of the needed solar heat enters the building. [13]
For more detailed information on how to improve your landscaping and save energy visit the SULIS web page at: http://www.sustland.umn.edu or Consumer Energy Information: EREC Fact Sheets, U.S. Department of Energy, at: http://www.eren.doe.gov/erec/factsheets/landscape.html
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Improve Your School's Transportation Techniques
Did you know that many schools across the U.S. spend more energy on transportation than they do on their school buildings? [14] Why spend so much energy on school buses? This energy can be conserved, and pollution that ends up being produced by buses and cars that drive you to school can be prevented. Promote alternative ways of transportation at your school that can help conserve energy. Raise awareness among students that bicycles can be used as means of transportation under warm weather conditions. If your school does not have any bike racks or paths, convince you school administrators that these things are also important for saving energy.
According to Energy Smart Schools Program, today around 60% of school buses run on diesel fuel. Diesel this causes significant health and environmental problems. According to the U.S. EPA, diesel exhaust aggravates asthma, emphysema, and bronchitis. It is also said to exacerbate allergies. The Minnesota Department of Health reports that in Minnesota, asthma is the leading cause of absenteeism in school children. Hospitalizations for asthma in Minnesota citizens under the age of 20 are increasing. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has found that fine particle pollution (otherwise known as soot) from exhaust significantly increases the risk of death from heart and lung disease, causing at least 70,000 deaths a year in the U.S. Studies in California reveal that more than 70% of the risk of cancer from air pollution comes from diesel exhaust. Federal regulators have estimated that diesel exhaust is responsible for as many as 125,000 cancers nationwide (ALAPCO) [15]. It is also important to remember that emissions from diesel vehicles contribute to global warming and acid rain formation.
You can stop this! Make a campaign at your school to raise awareness about diesel pollution and promote "No Idling" policies, regular inspection and maintenance of your school buses, and switching to buses running on environmentally clean fuels.
No Idling Policy: Require that buses turn off their engines when waiting for students in front of the school. Schedule buses to arrive closer to the time of pick up to reduce time idling when the bus must idle (e.g. during inclement weather). Your school can go a step further and implement a no vehicle idling policy for cars, delivery trucks, and buses [16]. A "No Idling" policy will help buses save a lot of extra fuel and emit less pollution.
It is also important to raise awareness about locations of bus parking lots. Make sure that buses at your school are parked as far away from air-intake vents as possible. This will prevent bus emissions from entering into your school building.
Regular Inspection and Maintenance: Improve your school's inspection and maintenance program for buses. Sometimes even a bus that seems to be running normally might need a maintenance treatment. The benefits of inspecting and performing a regular maintenance on school buses are: reduced pollution from diesel emissions and more fuel efficient and smoother running buses. A bus that is well-maintained can run up to a couple of years longer than a bus that receives less regular maintenance. How can you tell when a bus needs maintenance? You can perform an opacity test on a bus. This test involves measuring a bus' emissions by seeing how much light is blocked by the exhaust [17].
Buses Running on Alternative Fuels: There are different alternative fuels that can be considered for school buses. Among these options are electric or hybrid electric buses, or buses that run on ethanol, compressed natural gas or biodiesel. Refer to the U.S. Department of Energy's Clean Cities Program for help on deciding what buses are best for your school.
For more information on transportation issues at schools please refer to Sierra Club's School Bus website at: www.northstar.sierraclub.org/schoolbus. For more specific guidance on how to change the way the transportation system functions at your school please refer to the Transportation section of Rebuild America's Guidebook available on their web site at: http://www.rebuild.org/attachments/SolutionCenter/designguide_coldhumid(2).pdf (pdf).
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Participate in Energy Saving Programs Developed Especially for Schools
Participate in the Energy Star Program: Energy Star has an initiative for Energy Management in K-12 schools. This program is sponsored by the U.S. Environment Protection Agency. If you visit their website you can access information on the guidelines of how to become an Energy Star member school. If you are unsure whether your school should become a part of the program read some of the success stories about high schools from all over the U.S. that Energy Star provides on their website. Visit their web site at: http://energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=k12_schools.bus_schoolsk12.
Rebuild America: Helping Schools Make Smart Choices about Energy is a program that is endorsed by the National School Board Association, as well as by the U.S. Department of Energy. Help your school become a part of this program by visiting Rebuild America's web site and finding out how to become involved. Reading some of the success stories and seeing the improvements that have been achieved in other schools all over the country will help you to get involved in this program. The schools that completed the program, managed not only to save a lot of energy, they also saved enough money that most of them used for academic improvements. Visit Rebuild America's web page at: http://www.rebuild.org/sectors/ess/index.asp.
To read some of the success stories visit: http://www.rebuild.org/sectors/SectorPages/sol_center.asp?MktID=2.
Order an Energy Smart Building Choices-School Facilities booklet that describes the basic steps that you need to take in order to make your building more energy efficient. Place your order from:
Rebuild America Clearinghouse
U. S. Department of Energy
[1] Sierra Club: Energy and Air Pollution Fact Sheet. For more information refer to: http://northstar.sierraclub.org/air
[2] Howstuffworks: http://home.howstuffworks.com/question236.htm
[3] The lumen, symbol lm, is the SI derived unit of luminous flux. Luminous flux is the amount of light that falls on a unit area at unit distance from a source of one candle.
[4]http://home.howstuffworks.com/question236.htm
[5] Ibid.
[6] Office Depot: www.officedepot.com
[7] U.S. Department Of Energy: http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumerinfo/refbriefs/ef2.html
[8] The Energy Outlet: http://energyoutlet.com/res/lighting/t8.html
[9] http://or.essortment.com/fluorescentbulb_rwdy.htm
[10] Home Depot Energy Saving Tips: http://www.homedepot.com/HDUS/EN_US/energy/en_tips_home.html
[11] Sustainable Urban Landscape Information Series: http://www.sustland.umn.edu
[12] For diagrams visit http://www.sustland.umn.edu/design/energysaving.html
[13] Ibid.
[14] Rebuild America. Energy Smart Schools: http://www.rebuild.org/attachments/SolutionCenter/designguide_coldhumid(2).pdf (pdf)
[15] Sierra Club: www.northstar.sierraclub.org/schoolbus
[16] Sierra Club: www.northstar.sierraclub.org/schoolbus
[17] Sierra Club: Maintenance Tips Fact Sheet (pdf, 181k)
More information on the Sierra Club's energy campaign in Minnesota and nationally