Schools saved $1.8 million through energy conservation over past decade

During the past decade, an energy savings program adopted by the Board of Education has saved more than $1.8 million, officials said Wednesday.
The energy program has reduced the expected outlay for utilities through a wide range of conservation measures, some as simple as turning off the lights at the end of the day.
“We’ve been helping Al Gore in his quest to make this a green world,” said William Smyth, the assistant superintendent for business.
Smyth said that by slicing the use of electricity, natural gas and heating oil, the city’s schools have reduced energy use as much as getting 4,614 cars off the road or planting almost 10,000 acres of forest.
But the quest to save energy is far from over.
Smyth told the Board of Education Wednesday that the two new schools eyed for Bristol will be designed with energy efficiency in mind.
He said they are likely to have passive solar panels on the roof and “green design” ideas incorporated throughout the 900-student structures.
Almost a third of the energy savings occurred in just one school, Bristol Central High School.
Smyth said its design proved the most conducive to reducing the use of electricity and heating oil.
For example, even though it has about the same number of students as Bristol Eastern High School, it costs $337 a day for electricity at Central and $407 a day at Eastern.
The cheapest daily use is at Chippens Hill Middle School, the newest building, where the tab is $266 a day for electricity.
Stafford Elementary also saw a large reduction in its expected use, probably because it was so inefficient to begin with. Smyth said that officials have made changes that included changing steam traps there.
The city hired a half-time energy consultant to lend a hand with its efforts to pare utility bills back in 1997. The effort hasn’t waned as prices soared.
Smyth said the savings would be even higher except that the school system gets comparatively cheap natural gas and electricity through consortiums to which it belongs.
Reducing energy use, Smyth said, is basically a cost avoidance program.
Replacing four older schools with two new ones as soon as 2011 will further cut energy use since the new buildings will be more efficient than Memorial Boulevard Middle School and three aging elementary schools targeted for closure, officials said.
The only building in the school system that has seen its energy costs rise is the central administrative office.
Smyth said that it has much more use these days, because there are more administrators and because of the many professional development programs conducted there.

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Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com