Q&A Session from our “Reduce Energy in Schools and School Districts” webinar

Brian Branting, Energy Manager from BC’s School District #79, joined us for a very interesting webinar on reducing energy consumption in schools and school districts (we apologize for a few rough spots in the audio of the recording).  Brian presented how 30 facilities in his district reduced their energy consumption by nearly 20% for the 2009/2010 fiscal year, which amounted to a cost avoidance of over $250,000 on their 2009/2010 budget.  The two big keys to his success were establishing a successful energy conservation behaviour program that encouraged and supported school staff and students to reduce energy use, as well as optimizing the schools’ heating schedules for greater efficiency.

We had a very engaged audience who peppered us with many questions at this webinar, and unfortunately we ran out of time before we had the chance to answer them all.  Brian was nice enough to send us his answers to the unanswered questions via email, so now we can present the entire Q&A session here on our blog:

Questions on Occupant Engagement

Question: What would you say was the most effective initiative that you implemented to get the kind of energy reductions that you did?

Brian Branting:  Optimizing the heating schedules at our schools had the biggest impact.  Also, turning off the lights in unoccupied rooms had a big impact too.  I find that thanks to all the communication we had with the people at schools most lights in unoccupied rooms are off now, while two years ago I would estimate that in 75% of rooms the lights were on when there was nobody there, so that made a big difference.

Q: How did you implement those changes to the scheduling, how much automation vs manual controls does it involve?

Brian: The lighting is all manual except for exterior lighting, we have some automated systems in some of our bigger gymnasiums.  One of our current projects is putting in occupant sensors in all our gymnasiums, but I don’t want to automate things too soon, I want people to realize that they have control over things.   Once we go through the educational program then we will start introducing automation to some areas, particularly the ones that are not highly occupied.

Q: How do you find your energy champions who will help to spread the energy conservation message in your schools?

Brian:  I appeal to the staff of the school, generally through the principal. I have found that once the staff realize the need and also understand that they will be supported in what they are doing there is usually someone who is willing to step forward. Someone who volunteers is usually more energetic then someone who is recruited.

Q: Who were your energy champions, and why were you surprised by some of the champions that emerged?

Brian:  Originally we started with principals at our schools and I thought that some of them were going to be far too busy or were going to try to pass it on to someone else, but some of the ones I least expected to be leaders turned out to be my best energy champions.

Q: What kind of incentives are you using for the energy champions to reduce energy, or what’s motivating them if not incentives?

Brian:  We are not using incentives right now, though we are looking at doing this in the future.  People on Vancouver Island are generally pretty green-minded and environmentally conscious, and drove and motivated them to help reduce energy.

Q: Do the students/teachers have access to the dashboard?  Is it used in the curriculum at all?

Brian:  Not yet, but we will have a pilot program starting this fall where the students will have a dashboard in their classroom at one of our schools.   BC Hydro (the local power utility) has developed some educational programs to run in classrooms where students will start by going around the school shutting off all unnecessary lights and coming back to the dashboard 15 minutes later to see how the energy consumption has changed.  This will give them an idea of what effect they can have on a real time basis, later the program will be expanded school-wide when announcements will be made to get everyone to shut-down as much as they can and see the impact of their actions.

Q: How important is it that the building occupants actually get feedback on how much energy is being used/saved? Does teaching them to turn off lights work if they don’t get the feedback?

Brian:  I wouldn’t say that feedback is critical in all cases. However, I have had many people ask me if their efforts are actually worth it, so in these cases positive feedback is definitely helpful.

(Pulse Energy: The importance of feedback in initiatives designed to get building occupants to reduce energy consumption was discussed in one of our previous webinars on Occupant Engagement.  The webinar also includes a includes helpful tips and practical suggestions on getting building occupants to work with you to reduce energy consumption and on supporting them in their efforts.)

Q: Most teachers spend time in their classrooms on weekends and some evenings. How do they stay warm?

Brian:  Generally we don’t let the temperature drop too much, it hovers around 16-18 deg Celsius (61-64 deg Fahrenheit).   I have not had any complaints from teachers who come in on weekends, I think they are generally aware that the school will be cooler on weekends and so they bring a sweater.

Questions on Boilers, Heating Scheduling, and Systems

Q: Do you change your boiler temperature according to the time of the year?

Brian:  Our boilers are run on a reset schedule based on outside temperature so when outdoor temperature is colder, the boiler temperature will be higher.  It’s all automated with each school being a bit different depending on the heat load of the school, the ones that are really hard to heat up will have a higher loop temperature, while the ones that retain their heat better will have a lower loop temperature

Q: What is the night time set back temperature, and what challenges have you faced with this?

Brian:  Our climate is pretty mild, some nights we do get down to -10 to -15 deg Celsius (14 – 5 deg F.), but generally night-time temperatures remain above the freezing mark.  In the majority of our schools we can have a night-time set-back of 15degrees Celsius  (59 deg F.) but it’s on a sliding scale: when it gets to be -10 outside our night-time setback goes up to 18 degrees Celsius so it does not go as far back if it’s really cold out which helps with the recovery in the morning.  We have a couple of schools that have some heating issues and we don’t let them go below 18 degrees Celsius (64 deg. F.) at any time.

Q: Brian have you ever heard of a boiler controller called M2G?

Brian:  I have seen some information on M2G controllers. It is my understanding that these controllers are used to monitor the supply and return temperature of the boiler. This information is used to prevent the boiler from over firing when it is not necessary. All of our boiler systems are controlled through DDC systems. These systems do pretty much the same thing, monitoring the supply, return and outside air temperature and using this information to control the boiler fifing level.

Q: Our school district has buildings that were built anywhere from the 1920′s through 2010. Newer facilities allow for more points of establishing building sensors (grade level wings, lighting only, HVAC only, etc.) but older buildings do not.  In your experience, has this been a limitation on effective reporting and identifying potential opportunities?

Brian:  One of our buildings is going to have its 100th birthday in less than 2 years and we did a full retrofit in it 10 years ago, now it has a fully automated heating system, every room is monitored for temperature and has its own heating controls, so it can be done, it’s just a matter of priorities.  It took a lot of resources to get the systems established, but now we can definitely take advantage of it.

Q: Real time metering and software was used to identify an anomaly, what was done to avoid this situation from reoccurring in the future?

Brian:  The most important thing is to communicate with the operation staff and users to make them aware when things occur.  Generally they are pretty receptive; sometimes it’s just an oversight or accident so it’s important to simply be aware and have co-operation from your staff and users.

Questions on Energy Managers

Q: with obvious financial payback resulting from your position, what is the level of interest from government officials in promoting this type of work position? How is information being shared with other energy managers?

Brian:  The position of Energy Manager is promoted quite strongly in the Public Sector in British Columbia. The Provincial government has legislated high conservation targets for BC Hydro. British Columbia also has legislation in place that requires all of the Public Sector to be carbon neutral since the start of 2009.

Q: What do you think are the qualifications for a good energy manager?

Brian:  I feel that the best qualification for an Energy Manager is a true interest in energy conservation. I have a highly technical background and that works for me. I am continually learning how things work on the business side of the job. On the other hand I know energy managers that come from a business background who are also very successful. We have a tight Energy Management community in British Columbia and I know that a lot of them consult between themselves on a regular basis.

Thanks again to Brian for presenting his case study and for taking the time to answer all the questions at the webinar and via email.  If you have questions about Pulse Energy’s software and how it can enable energy savings in schools, please contact us online or give us a call at 1-877-331-0530.