The power of displayed information encourages good energy saving behaviour
Helping our future generations see the part they play in good energy management practices
Children, just like adults, need to be informed of the ways they interact with buildings, so that they can not only monitor the impact of their behaviour within that building but also take corrective actions. Benchmarking best practice and presenting them in a youth-friendly format is the way we help you do it.
School energy management system preaches what it practises
Teachers at Sutton Park Community Primary School in Kidderminster are doing their best to ensure that their pupils do not take the world’s natural resources for granted. They have been helped in this quest by the Trend system, part of whose function is to educate the children about the importance of energy conservation and sustainable living.
The pupils at Sutton Park can look at BEMS collected data about their school – through custom-designed, child-friendly graphic pages to view system monitored data such as room temperatures and CO2 concentrations within the schools.
Child-friendly graphics and BEMS Best practice combined to deliver a class act
Using simply worded text, animated graphics and a pictorial style familiar to a young audience, the children are shown how their classrooms are kept warm and their hand washing water is heated and how rainwater is collected and used for flushing toilets. The displays contain live and historic data collected by the BEMS, such as current temperature values and cumulative energy and mains/rain water consumption.
To encourage energy saving behaviour, the interactive screen shows the electricity usage for each classroom area – for the current day, the last month and the year to date. The school now intends to modify and develop the displays with a view to establishing this innovative teaching aid as part of the curriculum.
SUTTON PARK COMMUNITY PRIMARY SCHOOL
Learning the importance of energy conservation and sustainable living
THE CHALLENGE:
When Sutton Park Primary and its 240 pupils had moved into brand new school buildings, distinguished by a low energy design and a strong emphasis on renewable resources, the challenge became having the best solutions to control and monitor of the heating system to ensure a high level of energy efficiency as well as keeping heating costs down.
THE SOLUTION:
In response to this challenge Trend installed a Supervisor to adjust control settings and view monitored data such as room temperature and CO2 concentrations within the school, heating plant operation and, in some cases, utility meter readings. This resulted in an in-depth view of the operation and status of the heating system, changing heating times and providing data to help diagnose faults.
THE OUTCOME:
To minimise unnecesary use of energy, the school has been divided into three heating zones; each has a variable temperature heating circuit that is independently controlled by the BEMS. As an example this means that the hall can be used outside school hours without having to bring the heating on in other areas. The pupils at Sutton Park can also look at BEMS collected data about their school – through custom-designed, child-friendly graphic pages that Trend created for them to encourage energy saving behaviour.
BENEFITS
- GOOD INSULATION AND TIGHT CONTROL OF THE HEATING SYSTEM
- DISPLAYING THE ENERGY CONSUMPTION FIGURES TO BOTH ENGINEERS AND CHILDREN
- ENCOURAGE ENERGY SAVING BEHAVIOUR
Contact Us
School security, indoor air quality, energy costs and aging buildings can impact a learning environment.
We can help you address those issues affordably, for a sustainable, energy-efficient and safer schools.