Thursday, June 30, 2011

SFASD Sees $500,000 in Energy Savings

SFASD Sees $500,000 in Energy Savings
Spring-Ford Area School District's Director of Planning, Operations and Facilities Bruce Cooper gave a presentation on energy savings at Monday night's school board meeting. The project was initiated two years ago, but saw its highest savings in the second year at $500,000.

"You've got to make this short so we can conserve the lights," said board president Joseph Ciresi to some laughter.This is also known as your return on investment ledbright or ROI. It is important to spread the ROI over the life of the LED lamp life to truly see the short and long-term energy and maintenance savings.

Cooper said the first year was minimal at $100,000 and the second year is when the district really saw vast improvements. In comparison with energy savings, Cooper said the $500,000 converts to a total of about 1.3 million kilowatt hours.

The energy savings plan consisted mostly of tactics that would conserve electricity in the district; however, there were also major efforts in obtaining savings in gas, water, sewer and service contracts.You want someone that has the experience in LED lighting to guide you to the right product shinebright that is best suited to your project.

According to Cooper, the first year yielded efforts in temperature control in both the winter and summer months. Energy was also saved by adjusting mercury vapor in the lights in the gyms and cafeteria. The original lights burned all day, while the new plan allowed for the lights to go out over a timeline. The cafeteria staff unplugged unused equipment in the summer to conserve electricity, as well.

The cafeteria staff wasn't the only group that figured out a way to save. The technology department was also made aware of the project and was made more conscious of the benefits of turning off computers, televisions and projectors at the end of the day.

Cooper pointed out that students and staff can now see that every other light is turned off in the halls and classrooms and lights get turned off manually by staffers in classrooms that are vacant.

Auto sensors were placed in the bathroom faucets and the school participated in the "Smart Idea" program, which reimbursed it for replacing certain lights and other sources of energy.

In the second year, the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) team was revamped by the district and a specialist was brought in. By doing this, the district was able to do more work on the inside with the manpower it already had. Along with that,The particular demise with the incandescent bulb bluebright continues calmly yet non-stop and in less as compared to any year or two today the sole goods stocked in stores is going to be lower electricity bulbs, carbon dioxide sensors were brought in to monitor the classrooms and cool or heat them only for the amount of students occupying them, while recycling the air consistently.

Cooper and his team also found a way to make sure that areas not in use would go into an "unoccupied mode" and air would not be heated/cooled in those areas. Along with that, the system was changed over to a digital one so that individual equipment could be controlled. Before, if one piece of equipment needed to be turned off, the whole wing of the school needed to be shut down. Now, that is no longer an issue.

Finally, the lighting was changed to "staged" lighting at all athletic facilities and there were savings made by switching to a third party electric supply.

"This was only possible with a team effort,These lights are adopted by the various security lightbright agencies as these are the best lights to use with a security camera or a security device." Cooper said. "The board, departments, directors and staff have all worked hard to ensure these programs stay in place.These are also used as art light as well, it is because crystal these lights did not emit any harmful rays and the bluish color of LED lights makes a painting look very different from others and makes them attractive for the viewers."

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