New York's Kingston School District earned the honor of ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year in 2001 — the first K-12 district in the nation to receive this award.

Energy Smart Schools Case Study: Kingston School District

America’s schools spend more than $6 billion each year on energy. The Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that these same schools could save 25 percent of that money—$6 billion nationally—through better building design, energy-efficient and renewable energy technologies that are widely available, and improvements to operations and maintenance. The Energy Smart Schools program helps schools...

• Reduce energy consumption and costs, and increase the use of clean energy technologies in
  K-12 schools nationwide.
• Reinvest their savings from energy improvements.
• Improve the learning environment of schools through daylighting, better temperature control, better air quality, and other elements related to buildings and bus fleets.
• Increase student, teacher, and community awareness of energy and related issues, including financial management, air quality, climate change and new technologies.
• Create local partnerships to plan and implement cost-saving building improvements using energy efficiency and renewable energy.

More than 240 such community partnerships have already been formed, involving 2,000 schools. The Kingston School District is one such partnership and success story. Following are details of the energy-saving improvements, annual cost savings, and the role that the DOE’s Rebuild America and Energy Smart Schools program played in their success.

Profile: Location: Kingston, NY Dollars Saved Annually: $392,353 Date Project was completed: November 2000 School Square Footage: 1,266,000 sq ft Number of Students: 8,200

Classroom Technologies Successfully completing energy projects in schools can be a complex and intricate undertaking. Competing priorities for funds, school boards, bond issues, active parents...these and many more factors can all directly impact whether or not an energy-related project is done. Rebuild America’s Energy Smart Schools program helped transform the Kingston School District into a state-of-the-art model for energy efficiency by connecting the school with $6.9 million additional financing from the New York Power Authority’s Energy Services Program. The New York State Education Department aid will pay for about 57 percent of the project costs. The remainder will be paid with energy savings generated by the new technologies over a 10-year period.

Lighting

According to the Energy Information Agency (EIA), lighting accounts for 20 percent of energy use in most schools, after water heating (22 percent) and space heating (41 percent). Significant reductions in energy use can be achieved by installing energy-efficient lights, fixtures, and controls. The entire Kingston School District will ultimately upgrade to higher-quality lights that last longer and that are far cheaper to operate than the 96-watt fluorescent fixtures currently in use. In recent years, new technologies, such as electronic ballasts and dimmable fluorescents, have revolutionized the lighting industry. Retrofits to install new technologies are often cost-effective, paying back within a few years.

New windows take advantage of sunlight. Classrooms and common areas are brighter and the cost of fluorescent lighting is dramatically reduced.

Windows Window size and location are determined by the daylight, passive solar heating, and natural ventilation needs. In cold climates, large south-facing windows allow significant solar energy into the school and also provide daylighting. Properly sized overhangs can prevent overheating in the summer. In hot climates, north-facing windows can provide daylighting without heating the school.

East- and west-facing windows generally cause excessive heat gains in the summer and heat losses in the winter, and are usually sized small. Although overhangs are impractical for east- and west-facing windows, vertical shading can be used, or trees and shrubs can be strategically located to shade the windows.

The Kingston School District replaced the windows in three schools. See how windows can save money in your district—go to www.energysmartschools.gov.

Gymnasium Technologies

Research has linked student achievement and behavior to the physical building conditions: good facilities lead to a better learning environment. An effective way to increase monies available for student activities, new equipment and staff training is to manage energy use.

The Energy Smart Schools program helped the Kingston School District identify and pursue significant energy savings. The district elected to direct 50 percent of these savings into educational programs, equipment, and materials. School officials have stated that energy savings have become one of the school district’s legacies for the future, resulting in lower taxes and the increased ability to keep its commitment to manage energy resources wisely. A portion of these savings has come from replacing the lighting in the gymnasium with high intensity discharge (HID) lights and replacing existing exit signs with light-emitting diodes (LED) exit signs.

Lighting retrofits and new windows have produced a comfortable, improved learning environment in a typical Kingston classroom.

HID Lighting Different types of lighting are appropriate for different kinds of spaces. The type of lighting used determines achievable efficiencies, the capability for color renditioning, lamp life and other important characteristics unique to specific lighting types. In some cases, requirements for any one of these characteristics can dictate the most appropriate type of lighting for a space.

By replacing its gymnasium lighting with high intensity discharge (HID) lights. HID lamps and compatible energy-efficient ballasts, the school reduced input watts (25 percent savings) and increased light output. Switching with special HID ballasts can provide bi-level lighting control for use with occupancy sensors in areas with intermittent occupancy.

Here are several important points to remember when working to improve energy efficiency in lighting:

1. Do not overilluminate.
2. Use efficient fixtures, lamps, and ballasts.
3. Control lighting efficiently.
4. Keep fixtures and lamps clean.

Lighting levels should be tailored to the type of task being performed and the function of the illuminated space. For new construction, additions, and large renovations, daylighting should be considered an opportunity for saving energy. It is also worth taking a look at outdoor lighting, including lighting for parking areas. The Energy Smart Schools program resources can help you choose the best lighting for key areas in your school.

Exit Signs

The Kingston School District also replaced exit signs in the gymnasiums and other locations in the schools. Retrofitting existing exit signs may be more economical than replacing entire signs, but proper installation is vital to ensuring adequate visibility.

When purchasing the exit sign retrofit kits, which allow conversion of existing signs to energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) models, be sure to specify products with the EPA/DOE ENERGY STAR® label or with a power consumption (in watts) that meets the recommended levels. Most LED exit signs meet this efficiency recommendation for both single- and double-face configurations. Some compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) exit signs meet the double-face recommendation.

CFL models require lamp replacements about every two years compared with an estimated life of 10 years or more for LED lamps. To ensure adequate visibility, the ENERGY STAR® label also requires that exit signs exceed visibility guidelines established by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Life Safety Code 101, as well as most building code requirements. Many LED and CFL signs meet these criteria. Be sure to check compliance with your own state or local codes before selecting exit signs. Finally, before purchasing exit signs, make sure that the manufacturer’s warranty covers replacement of defective parts for at least five years from the date of purchase, as required by the ENERGY STAR® specification.

Four boiler rooms in the district now have energy efficient, fully-condensing pulse boilers.

Equipment Room Technologies Of all commercial building types, school buildings have the third highest energy expenditures—$6 billion per year according to the Energy Information Agency (EIA). Smaller school buildings use energy more intensely than larger school buildings. The Kingston School District’s energy improvements have resulted in better lighting and temperature control, better indoor air quality, and reduced ambient noise. If your school is among the many schools now being renovated, or if you are struggling to fund repairs, think about how funds could be made available through innovative energy financing programs. Follow the Energy Smart Schools example, and make sure that the projects under construction or on the drawing boards adequately address energy issues. Projects that do not consider energy savings may cost less in the short term, but they will burden taxpayers with higher energy bills for decades to come.

The opportunity to build a better generation of schools is now. Energy Smart Schools is working to ensure that school decision-makers have the tools and assistance they need to make good choices when renovating existing schools and building new ones.

Boilers

Space heating is the number one energy cost for most schools, according to the Energy Information Agency (EIA). In the Kingston School District, state-of-the-art “pulse” boilers have replaced four heating plants, and the remaining heating equipment has been refurbished or soon will be. A boiler system should be capable of meeting the building’s peak heating demand while also operating efficiently at the more common part-load conditions. Sizing and selecting a boiler system properly, therefore, requires knowledge of the peak heating load, as well as an understanding of the load profile.

Rebuild America and Energy Smart Schools can help connect you with business partners who can help you quantify and qualify the energy-saving opportunities in your heating plant. The Kingston district will be fulfilling Rebuild America’s mission to help communities keep local dollars at home. Contractors for this project live in New York state, and the pulse boilers and lighting that were purchased were manufactured in the state.

Computer Energy Management System

The Kingston School District chose to install computerized energy management systems in all schools—a strategy that is increasing in popularity as more and more school districts are moving to centralized operation and maintenance facilities.

The current chaotic energy environment has given energy monitoring a vital role next to purchasing management and financial controls. Ignoring the fundamental importance of measuring energy creates unnecessary risk that manifests itself in reduced equipment lifetime and the missed opportunity to do more with less energy. An energy management system can be an effective way to change energy usage from a nonvalue-added cost to a strategic investment.

The systems vary in complexity and functionality, providing data for decision-making in understanding, allocating, and controlling energy use and costs and in improving operation and maintenance at multiple facilities. Finally, energy monitoring can also help determine whether an energy management solution has achieved the projected savings. Regardless of the methods used to ascertain energy performance and other project benefits, you should develop a plan for collecting and analyzing building data on an ongoing basis. Rebuild America’s Energy Smart Schools can help you decide which method is best for your school’s needs.

Go to www.energysmartschools.gov/energysmartschool for more information on Energy Smart Schools.

Thank you to Rebuild America and Energy Smart Schools for permission to reprint this article. For an interactive version of this case statement and more information, go to www.rebuild.org.