Sustainability Unit

Case Study - Manunda Primary School

 

In May 1999 Manunda Terrace Primary School, together with GEMP (former name for the Sustainability Unit), designed and implemented some energy saving measures.

A walk- through audit of the school was conducted and based on the audit recommendations, Manunda Terrance Primary agreed to various technical initiatives at a cost of $14,970 (funded by the former GEMP). It was estimated that this investment would be re-cooped within a period of 2 to 3 years from the resulting savings in energy expenditure

The technical initiatives included:

• Time delay switches on storeroom lights and also controlling staff toilet lights.
• Motion activating light switching in the Staff Room (ultrasonic high range), Drama Room (ultrasonic high range) and student toilets (passive infra red low range).
• Installation of 2-hour clockwork light switches in classrooms.
• Time delay switch on the air-conditioner in the janitor’s room (max. run time = 2 hours).

A no-cost initiative implemented by the school was the selection of student light monitors whose role is to dial-up the time that each of the classroom’s lights are needed using the clockwork switches.

With the implementation of these initiatives the school’s energy consumption decreased from 123490 (kWh) in late 1998 to 109170 (kWh) in late 1999; an energy saving of 12%. 

Extrapolated over a year, this translates to a saving of $6,137, which would return an actual payback period of 2.4 years.

Energy Chart