Energy Efficiency Tips
Here is a range of strategies, both short and long term, the school could adopt to increase energy efficiency.
Select the most appropriate for your school and at home.
Average Electricity Usage in High Schools
Outdoor environment
 Plant deciduous trees. They give shade in summer and let light
7% 3%
through in winter.
12%
 Plant wind breaks, particularly on the south side.
6%
Appliances
2%
 Wash clothes in cold water.
54%
7%
 Before turning on the heating, put on extra clothes.
9%
 Place refrigerators in a cool spot, not next to the oven or in the sun.
 Switch off lights in display refrigerators overnight.
 Set the thermostat at the lowest comfortable temperature in winter
classroom equipment
office equipment
9%
7%
(18-20C).
fans
canteen
2%
6%
heating and cooling
water heating
 Twenty computers generate about 2.5kilograms of greenhouse gas
12%
7%
refrigeration
lighting
of
buildings
every hour they are on.
3%
54%
 Use ovens and cookers as little as possible. Microwave ovens and gas cookers are low cost.
 If a refrigerator is one degree too cold, greenhouse gas emissions can increase by 5-10%.
 Use the solar powered clothes-dryer (the clothes line). A clothes dryer can produce 2-3kg of greenhouse gas per use.
 Buy appliances that use less energy and have a higher star rating. Depending on the size you choose, buying a 5-star fridge
instead of a 3-star can save 200kg of greenhouse gas emissions each year.
 Switch off unused equipment or fit timer controls. The screensaver feature on a computer does not reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. Computers are not actually being used for about 90% of the time that they are turned on. Switch off the computer
instead. Switching off modern computers doesn’t damage them.
 Turn off refrigerators on weekend and holidays if they contain non-perishable items, such as soft drinks.
 A refrigerator that has been turned off saves more than 50kg of greenhouse gas per unit in a fortnight.
 At the end of term, pack perishable goods into as few refrigerators as possible and turn off the empty ones.
 A modern laptop computer can reduce electricity demand by up to 90% compared with an old-fashioned desktop.
 Inkjet printers and inkjet facsimile machines produce the same quality as laser equivalents at comparable speed yet use only 1
or 2% as much electricity.
 Don’t leave security lighting on all night. Install movement-sensitive lights that switch themselves on if someone is passing by
them.
 Turn off small hot water heatings on Friday afternoon. Turn off larger hot water heaters during the holidays. If this is not
possible, install timers on the heaters.
 Instead of using air conditioning, open the classroom early in the morning to let the cool air in. Close the classroom midmorning to keep the cool air in and the hot air out.
Buildings
 Use skylights for natural heating and lighting.
 Insulate walls and ceilings.
 An unshaded 1.5square-metre window in direct summer sun transmits as much heat as a single-bar radiator. Shading (with
shade cloth, external blinds or plants) can reduce this by 80%.
 Seal up the gaps around doors and windows. Door ‘snakes’ are excellent in summer and winter.
 Ensure that lights near windows have a separate switch, so they can be switched off while others are on.
 Take advantage of natural heating. Windows that face north will let the winter sun into rooms.
 In rooms with height ceilings, use ceiling fans on low setting to recirculate warm air from the ceiling in winter.
 Insulating hot water pipes and fittings saves a kilogram of greenhouse gas every ten operating hours.
 By converting from oil heating to natural gas, you can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20%.
 Using evaporative coolers in dry climates instead of refrigerated air conditioners reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to
90%.
 A change of one degree can reduce heating and cooling greenhouse gas emissions by 10 to 20%.
 By fitting an AAA-rated, water-efficient showerhead, you will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about half a tonne each
year.
 Install renewable energy systems to provide electricity (e.g. solar cells). Make the system’s grid interactive so you can sell
power back to the energy supplier.
Lighting
 Assign the office duty students to switch off lights whilst they are not required, while they are delivering messages.
 Compact fluorescent globes use less energy than ordinary light globes.
 Some people believe that leaving fluorescent lights on saves energy and money. It doesn’t.
 Replace old-style 40-watt fluorescent tubes (40mm in diameter) with thinner (26mm) 36-watt tubes.
 Every 100 watts of lights (for example, two fluorescent tubes) generates a kilogram of greenhouse gas every eight hours; that’s
a tonne every year.
 Replacing incandescent globes with compact fluorescent lamps will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80%,

Appoint light monitors. Use positive incentives and reward achievements.