Environment in Schools

Posted on Posted in Blog

I am not saying that Air Conditioners in schools are a bad thing – and part of the Business Model of Redshift Wireless is to provide intelligent Air Conditioner management solutions for Schools, but that things can be done better. Check out the photo below. It is of a school building that is not that old located in sub-tropical Sydney. I am guessing the building is about 10 years old, but I cannot remember exactly when it was installed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are three things about this photo that I see from an Environmental point of view. See if you can work out what they are. The first two are easy, but the third is probably a bit harder to find. OK, here they are:

  • Air Conditioners/Heat Pumps
  • Rain Water Tanks
  • Lighting

Let’s start with Lighting. Hidden behind the right hand side Air Conditioner compressor is a flouro light. And despite the fact that this photo was taken about 10am on a weekday during school holidays, the light was on. That single light is probably rated at 18W, meaning that over a year it will probably use about 155 kWh of energy, costing about $36 per year. Running it on a timer where it is only on for an average of 12 hours a day, averaged over the year would save $18 per globe. And there were a lot more lights on than just this one.

Rain Water tanks can save money too, when used for things like watering plants, and for running toilets. I think these are just used for outside watering purposes, which is noble. Having said that, at $2/1000L, rainwater tanks are often not a fantastic investment.

As for the Air Conditioners – they are the real problem at this particular school. I walked past previously during a school term about 10:30am in early autumn. It was a nice sunny day, and the ambient temperature was about 23 degrees. Basically, the temperature outside was perfect. The building is nice and new, so would be well insulated, yet they had the Air Conditioner on.

The room was on the second story, and even had ceiling fans that they could use. However despite turning them on, or opening the windows bringing in fresh air, or anything else, the Air Conditioner was on.

The problem is not that the Air Conditioners are getting used, is that the people using them are deciding to use them by default. If you can modify this behavior, you can make major savings with energy usage.

Thankfully, Redshift Wireless is there to help you make these changes