Huge energy savings for John Paul College

Issue: Volume 95, Number 2

Posted: 9 February 2016
Reference #: 1H9cyv

Turning lights off at lunch time and computers off after school are just a few of the things that are saving John Paul College thousands of dollars a year on its energy bill.

Thanks to its energy-saving teachers and students, the Rotorua secondary school was named the winner of the first annual Torque IP Conservation Cup.

John Paul College beat 29 other schools from throughout the country to pick up $3,000 in prize money.

In total the schools involved managed to save 122,614 kilowatt-hours during the 28 days of the competition. That equates to approximately $24,265 or powering an average primary school for 11 months.

John Paul College teacher Veronica Aislabie says the school’s students were delighted to win the competition.

“We’ve got quite a strong environmental group at the college and we try to be as green as we can be,” she says.

“Entering the competition lifted our performance markedly, the whole school got involved.”

Veronica says she and fellow teacher Matt Satherley worked with the environmental group at the college to lead the power-saving efforts.

The students spoke in assemblies, monitored power use and got their peers in behind the competition.

“During form time teachers showed the students the dashboard and our usage over the previous 24 hours,” Veronica says. “We could compare our use with that of the other schools in the competition and it got quite competitive.”

Power monitors would ensure lights and computers were turned off after class, teachers were encouraged to turn lights off in the staff room and the number of lights in the administration area was reduced.

“It started making a huge difference. We could see each day that the power was coming down.”

Asked what the prize money will go towards, Veronica says the students have been investigating installing solar panels on the school’s new technology block.

John Paul College’s efforts in energy saving began in 2008 when several students did an energy audit. Since then thousands of dollars have been saved each year from the energy bill.

BY Education Gazette editors
Education Gazette | Tukutuku Kōrero, reporter@edgazette.govt.nz

Posted: 9:28 pm, 9 February 2016

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