Analyse your school energy use - when is your school occupied?
Mary Elton Primary School, Monday, 22 April 2024
10
Analyst
KS1, KS2, KS3, KS4, KS5
What you did
I looked at each of the icons and what they meant. I compared the gas and electricity readings for each day and noticed they reduced during the weekends. I also noticed the gas reading in particular started to rise much earlier in the day than electricity. I received an alert telling me that my schools usage went up over the Easter Holiday by 80%. I spoke to my head teacher and he told me that the school had contractors in over the two weeks painting the rooms and installing whiteboards.
Activity description
Contrary to popular opinion, teachers don't live in school. Find out a bit more about when and how your school is occupied to understand when and how energy is being used in your school.
Energy Sparks charts show your schools' energy consumption when the school is open (green) and closed (blue) on school days.
Energy Sparks charts show your schools' energy consumption when the school is open (green) and closed (blue) on school days.
For good energy management, you want most of your energy use to be when the school is open. Compare the following graphs showing the electricity use in two schools. Which school is using most electricity in the early morning? What time does the electricity use shoot up? Can you think of a reason for this? Is anyone in the school at this time?
Now look at School E. When is most electricity being used? Do you think this is anything to do with the school being occupied?
This is the recent electricity data for your school:
Change units
Explore
We do not have enough data at the moment to display this chart
We set open and closed times as a default but you can change this for your school when logged in as an Admin to your Energy Sparks account. Go to Manage School - Edit School times. Design a questionnaire for staff to answer so that you can understand better what happens at the start and end of the school day. You may want to ask the following questions:
- When do you arrive?
- What appliances/ equipment do you switch on? (include lights, kettles, photocopiers, projectors, whiteboards, computers, printers, heaters/air con)
- What time do you leave?
This is a very good opportunity for staff to think through their arrival and departure routines. Do they need to be switching on equipment so early or turning it off so late?
Explanations
School C either has cleaners coming in very early in the morning or the electrical heating system warming up the school.
School D is a good representation of when school staff are coming in.
School E may have a late evening event taking place. To understand more we would look at the graphs for the next few days. If this pattern repeats we would want to investigate the timings of the electrical heating system or ask the Caretaker or an Energy Sparks auditor for more help understanding what is happening.
School C either has cleaners coming in very early in the morning or the electrical heating system warming up the school.
School D is a good representation of when school staff are coming in.
School E may have a late evening event taking place. To understand more we would look at the graphs for the next few days. If this pattern repeats we would want to investigate the timings of the electrical heating system or ask the Caretaker or an Energy Sparks auditor for more help understanding what is happening.