Today's Energy Insight

Some energy history today...

An early discovery in solar technology occurred in 1876 when William Grylls Adams, a professor at King's College in London and his student, Richard Evans Day, discovered that selenium can produce electricity when exposed to light. Although selenium cells failed to convert enough sunlight to power electrical equipment with only 1 to 2 percent efficiency, they did prove that a solid material could change light into electricity without heat or moving parts. This discovery then led to the modern solar cell.

Today's Energy Insight

Thank you to Ann Arney at Class 5 Energy for

9 Fun Facts about Saving Energy at School

Think saving energy at school is boring? Think again! Here are some fun facts about what happens when you conserve energy in your classrooms, bathrooms, computer labs and across the district!

• A hot water faucet that leaks one drop per second can add up to 165 gallons a month. That’s more than the average person uses in two weeks!
• Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to watch TV for three hours.
• Turning off the lights in your classroom for just one hour saves enough energy to keep two pounds of pollutants out of the atmosphere!
• The average school toilet uses 3.5 gallons per flush – if there are 28 kids in your classroom that means that just one bathroom break could fill up two bathtubs with water!
• Replacing six interior incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs can keep 566 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere — and save you about $30 — each year. Schools spend more on energy than they do on computers and books combined!
• If everyone in the United States switched just one light bulb from incandescent to CFL, we would save enough energy to light up 7 million homes!
• Across the country, computer monitors waste about $900 million dollars in electricity per year from being left on while no one is using them.
• The least efficient schools use three times more energy as the best performers – how does your school measure up?

Captive Audience

Anxiously awaiting the Human Powered Generator presentation...

Fabulous 4th Graders

Here's a shout out to all the students I have been working with around the district. I finally took time to stop and capture a few smiles to post on the blog. These 4th grade students really enjoyed playing the Spin-Off game show. What a fun and educational activity.

Today's Energy Insight

Why save energy at school???

Five reasons why Energy Management
                     is important to our school district:

• U.S. Schools spend $8 billion per year on energy
• Average annual energy costs are $250 per student
• Energy costs in a school are not fixed; these expenses are controllable
• Nearly 1/3 of the energy consumed in schools is wasted
• 80% of greenhouse gas emissions are from the production, distribution and disposal of energy

Today's Energy Insight

If 10,000 schools turned off their lights for just ONE MINUTE, collectively they would save $81,885.00!

If those same schools turned off their classroom lights every time they went to recess, they would save more than $4.9 million!!!

Thanks for being mindful of energy use in your classroom, office or area. Together we CAN and DO make a difference!

Today's Energy Insight

Paper or Plastic?

The next time you are asked "paper or plastic?" consider the following statistic... Only about 700 paper bags can be made from one 15-year old tree.

Consider bringing along a re-usable bag or two the next time you head out shopping. Some stores even give you credit for bringing along your own bags.

So together we can save a lot of trees, one bag at a time :)

Today's Energy Insight

If all of the 1 billion+ PCs in the world were collectively powered down for just one night, it would save enough energy to light the entire Empire State Building - inside and out - for over 30 years!

Today's Energy Insight

From your District Energy Efficiency Coordinator:

The top 3 reasons why I LOVE saving energy...

Conserving energy helps save our district money!

It helps preserve our earth's natural resources!

Energy conservation is our MOST efficient form of energy ~
it's energy we don't have to produce in the first place.

I just LOVE saving energy, don't you???