Teachable Moment

Empty hallways echoed with footsteps as United Cooperative Services’ energy solutions specialists walked into classrooms and breakrooms, taking stock of thermostat settings, ceiling insulation and the types of light fixtures and windows installed.

School may have been out for summer this particular day, but class was in session for Labeth Warren, the school district’s new business manager. The free energy audit she’d requested was a major step for the first project of her new position, and she took careful notes on the energy issues discovered for the more than 18,000 square feet of space that make up the footprint of the school district’s buildings.

Bluff Dale ISD serves 227 students from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade in United’s service territory. Every penny counts, Warren said, and she hoped the audit would positively impact the school district’s budget and provide a comprehensive road map that would inform future energy conservation strategies.

“When it comes to energy use, I want to make sure we’re using best practices in the school system,” Warren said. “I am now in charge of ensuring money for our facilities is spent in the wisest way possible, and I want to be a good steward of our resources and learn how we could improve.”

Seth Rosser is United’s energy solutions manager. He said that the co-op strives to be a trusted energy advisor for its membership. It employs five energy solutions experts trained to perform free energy audits for both residential and commercial/industrial members seeking energy efficiency advice.

“Since 2006, United’s energy experts have been invited into more than 17,000 members’ homes and businesses to assist in decreasing energy waste and increasing comfort,” Rosser said. “As a not-for-profit, United provides its members with reliable, competitively priced power. We also help our members buy less of what we have to sell. We are committed to educating members about energy efficiency and teaching them the best ways to save energy dollars.” 

Eric Compton is an energy solutions specialist at United. He and a team of three other energy auditors scoured the school buildings for three hours and came up with a list of seven action items that could save the school major money if addressed.

“With a facility this large and about 36 different thermostats, it’s impossible for one person to keep track of each one without help from some sort of a smart device or a lock box on each control,” he said. “We discovered noticeably fluctuating temperatures as we walked through the buildings. Thermostats read anywhere from 65 to 74 degrees. Curbing the fluctuations while teaching faculty and staff how to better use energy will go a long way to helping reduce energy use overall. Whether it’s a home or a big building, HVAC makes up the lion’s share of any electric bill. So, concentrating on recommended adjustments to HVAC usage alone can typically help save about 30 percent right off the top.” 

Compton recommended that the school district create a consistent policy for thermostat settings when school is in session that adequately kept rooms comfortable and then one for summertime that reduced usage when rooms were empty. 

If the school didn’t wish to install lock boxes on the thermostats, Compton also recommended installing smart thermostats in the classrooms. That way, all thermostat settings could be viewed in an app at one time, and corrections could be made to adjust temperature settings from one central location, which would save time and increase efficiency overall.

Bluff Dale’s newly built high school appeared highly energy efficient, Compton said. The seven-year-old building featured adequate insulation on its metal roof and LED lighting that uses significantly less electricity while providing the same amount of light as standard incandescent or fluorescent choices. The high school’s largest area of concern, he said, was the wide scope of differing thermostat temperatures set throughout the building. 

At the elementary school’ s building, his team immediately noticed a difference. Built in the 1980s when energy efficiency wasn’t as great of a concern, energy solutions experts found a lack of insulation on the metal roof when their FLIR camera measured a temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit on a moderately warm day.

While drop-ceiling tiles did have fiberglass batting, the four to six inches of protection offer only R-13 insulation value when R-38 value is recommended. Spray foam insulation would have the most impact to improve energy efficiency by preventing the metal roof’s external temperature from reaching the interior of the building. 

Compton also counted 84 old-style light fixtures throughout the elementary school that used about four standard fluorescent bulbs apiece.

“They could benefit from changing these out to more energy efficient lighting,” he said. “We found bulbs ranging from 45 to 75 watts per fluorescent light tube. Modern LED light tubes are somewhere between five and 15 watts per tube. So, say one light has four 45-watt bulbs, then that’s 180 watts per fixture. If they change these to the five-watt LED, that’s 20 watts, and they’re saving 160 watts just on that one light fixture.”

United offers business members access to a lighting upgrade grant program where the cooperative would give the member 20 cents for every watt saved up to $10,000, he said. 

“It would definitely benefit them to go in and change up all of that lighting to LED lighting,” he said. “Then, the grant could help them out with the cost of that project. That would have a major impact on the amount of energy the school uses.”

At the school’s portables, Compton discovered an HVAC change to one that made great sense for energy savings.  

“Every one of the portable buildings had a commercial HVAC unit on the side,” he said. “I’m guessing they stopped working on a couple of those buildings, and they installed two mini splits. This was a very smart energy upgrade.” 

The big commercial AC unit used 4,200 watts when running, he said. The building with the two mini splits installed only used a combined 900 watts to perform the same cooling task. The new mini split, ductless system used almost 3,000 watts less than the large commercial unit originally installed. 

Compton said that, while school buildings may be completely different from residential buildings in size and shape, there’s a lesson that both residential and business members can learn from the Bluff Dale ISD energy audit.

“They’re the same in that the school building and homes have got walls, ceilings, HVAC units, thermostats and they have insulation,” he said. “Those are the big things that all members should focus on. Whether it’s a commercial building or a home, typically up to 60 percent of an energy bill is air conditioning and heat, 20 percent is water heating and the rest is lights and all other appliances that use electricity.”

Warren said she was glad she reached out for advice on saving energy, and she looked forward to developing an energy-saving plan for the coming school year. 

“The energy audit was a great education,” she said. “Everything that happened today was what I was hoping would happen today. Now, I need to plan what we are doing going forward and how we will train people to consider how they’re using energy while they’re here. We need to be very good stewards of what we have so we can continue to improve our campus.”