Run a campaign to switch off electrical equipment overnight

Martin High School, Wednesday, 14 February 2024
30 Change-maker KS1, KS2, KS3

What you did

The students addressed staff at their briefing meeting on Monday morning and then carried out a spot check on Tuesday after school.  they presented data on our usage over Christmas ad had a plan for the Head and for staff to switch off (an close doors as this is affecting our thermostat).

This was followed up by an email to staff on  Wednesday morning on the results of the spot check, with a shout out to the best teacher and highlighting areas that could be better.


Activity description

Your school should only use a small amount of electricity overnight for items such as fridges, freezers and servers. It is likely though that your school is leaving other items on overnight. An out-of-hours survey will help you identify these items so they can be switched off.  This is your baseload.

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  1. Undertake a detailed survey of all school rooms - 
    • Don’t forget the boiler room, services rooms and outside. Identify electrical items left on unnecessarily, looking particularly at exterior lighting, IT equipment, electric hot water heaters, pumps and other plant room equipment. 
    • Make a list for each room of the electrical equipment and apply a coloured sticker to the switch of each device. A traffic light coding system should be used for the stickers as follows:
      •  Green indicates equipment should be switched off when not in use (e.g. PCs, lighting). 
      • Amber indicates equipment should be switched off after ensuring no-one is using it. 
      • Red Do not touch. Equipment should not be switched off (e.g. fridges, freezers and network servers). 
  2. Note: shapes can be used with the colours to assist those that may be colour blind. 
  3. Switch off all equipment labelled with a green or amber sticker. 
  4. Measure your reduced energy use – After switching off all unnecessary electricity users, it is good to check the savings. Use the Energy Sparks charts to compare your school's energy use  across the day before and after the switch off campaign.
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  5. Repeat these checks regularly to check your overnight load does not start to rise above the ‘best practice’ level you measured above. 
  6. Make extra checks when you close up for the school holidays – leaving equipment on over the holidays will use a lot of unnecessary electricity. 

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