Energy Conservation Club!!

And_over · Tar Sands Joined: May 30, 2006 Posts: 45

Having surveyed the peak oil field, I've decided to take action. I've decided to start an energy awareness club at my school

The purpose of this club will be to:
1. Raise energy awareness on and around campus
2. Impliment measures to improve energy efficency and conservation measures on campus
3. To affect change in energy policy on the state and local level.

Here's what I'm dealing with:
Right now I'm attending a boarding school in Massachusetts. We have about 1100 students and about 400 faculty and staff members. The school is large and spread over an expansive area, similar to a small college. The school is interested in my effort and wants to help me. They have an incredible endowment so money isn't really an issue.

Here are a few of my ideas:
1. Switch from conventional lightbulbs to LEDs or CF bulbs.
Problem: I'm not sure where to get these
2. Install modern insulation such as argon gas containing double windows.
Problem: Don't know everything that's out there, don't know where to get the materials.
3. The school cafeteria produces a massive amount of waste, including vegetable oil. Maybe we could convert this waste to biodfuel to sell or power the school's cars.
Problem: Where do I get the equipment for this?
4. Attend local city counsil meetings and address local solutions to the energy problem
Problem: I wouldn't have any concrete examples to present to a hypothetical counsil
5. Weekly meetings to address energy concerns
Problem: I have a lot of information, but I need to make the club fun and interactive
6. Contacting energy providers (BP, Exxon, electric company) to find new ways to implement change.

These are a few ideas I have. ANY ideas ANYONE has would be immensely appreciated. My main areas are concern are:
1. Practical measures to reduce school energy consumption
2. How to make an impact in the community
3. How to expand beyond the school and town
4. Making contact with corporations and people able to assist
5. Possible ways to get my efforts recognized
6. How to get people involved; not be a one man crusade
7. Whatever you can think of

Texas_T · Tar Sands Joined: May 22, 2005 Posts: 39

Whereabouts are you in MA? I can point you in the direction of some utility rebate programs and other resources.

And_over · Tar Sands Joined: May 30, 2006 Posts: 45

umm... Andover. It's about half an hour north of Boston.

Texas_T · Tar Sands Joined: May 22, 2005 Posts: 39

Texas_T · Tar Sands Joined: May 22, 2005 Posts: 39

pea-jay · Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:27 am Post subject: Re: Energy Conservation Club!!

Great work! Much better than the other school aged idiots running around this forum talking about nerds and chodes and what not.

Now as to your school, if you have open school yards and flat roofs, look into roof top and campus cultivation of food for local consumption.

I have always advocated a system that is holistic/integrated where nutrients, resources, energy cycles in as close of loop as possible, where one system's waste is another's fuel. No waste, only minor leakage. Your food system is the ideal starting ground. Institutional cafeterias exemplify linear production and consumption of resources, scaled upward. They also are great opportunities. The extra energy invested to cook and refrigerate food is marginal to the AMOUNT of food cooked or stored. Fewer consuming units means getting at "waste" is easier.

But thats only a start. Look at synergies. Food waste, separated by type could go into compost directly or indirectly (feeding small livestock, fish then eaten) while fatty animal products go into a biogas generator (along with your guys poop) and gasified. The gas is harvested and used for cooking. Waste heat from various institutional processes could be conserved and/or reused for other purposes.

That's a start. There is no magic bullet for this problem. In fact there isnt even a singular problem. Just a mass of seemingly unrelated problems crying out for a comprehensive solution.

If your school is receptive as you say, but needs some buzzword to package the deal in, use SUSTAINABILITY. I made more inroads here in my community with that term than making energy crisis preparations. It's stupid I know, but if it sells, run with it.
_________________
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http://unplanning.blogspot.com

And_over · Tar Sands Joined: May 30, 2006 Posts: 45

Texas T: Thanks a lot! I'm looking both up on the web right now.

peajay: Thanks. Sadly, all the roofs are slanted and it would be impossible to grow anything on them. However, we have a massive amount of lawn space. I don't know how I could get the school to tear up the grass to plant corn though. They are attached to their "classic" image, but with a few buzzwords, I could probably get some of the land cultivated. I am also looking into using locally grown crops. A problem with growing or own crops is who would grow them. We do have a large student population and raising the plants could be a workduty, but all the students will be gone over the summer. They could hire some workers, but at that point they would want some cost benefits. They won't want to tear up the lawn and lose money doing it.

[quote=peajay]
But thats only a start. Look at synergies. Food waste, separated by type could go into compost directly or indirectly (feeding small livestock, fish then eaten) while fatty animal products go into a biogas generator (along with your guys poop) and gasified. The gas is harvested and used for cooking. Waste heat from various institutional processes could be conserved and/or reused for other purposes. [/quote]
I like this idea, but I don't know where to get the requisite material. Could food waste be used to power a car though? That's probably the schools biggest waste. They own a lot of buses and cars. If I could get those off of fossil fuels, then I think that would be a big step forward. Again though, I have no idea where to get the materials for this.

I've also heard of suprisingly simple things like using the waste refrigerator heat to power the water heater as well.

And_over · Tar Sands Joined: May 30, 2006 Posts: 45

Texas T:
I'm looking at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative website. It's incredible.

Frank · Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 2:00 pm Post subject: Re: Energy Conservation Club!!

You could do work at several levels with several interested people:

Do an energy analysis: you can take meter readings, use a device like "Kill-A-Watt" to measure electric consumption of specific devices, find out how much of which type of fuels the school uses, etc. etc. Publicize findings and relate to amt. of CO2 released, etc.

Analyze course offerings: do they offer anything on sustainable future? Does the engineering dept. offer anything on LCA (life cycle analysis)? You'll develop a list of what you think is important.

Where does the cafeteria (assuming you have one) get its food? Who makes purchase decisions? Do they buy local (in-state or whatever)? Where is your food dollar going?

I'm sure you could brainstorm and come up with a bunch of fun and useful things to do. Good luck!

pea-jay · Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 2:38 am Post subject: Re: Energy Conservation Club!!

Apparently your's isn't the only school contemplating these things. Sustainability is on the minds of another private school, over in Portland OR. This school is only a day school, but one of the city's oldest apparently.

ANyway they've been doing this visioning process, trying to look at life in 2020. While they don't hit the oil/energy issue directly, there is concensus that things do need to change in a more sustainable direction.

One goal outlined was cutting their energy consumption in half.
ANother was integrating the subject itself into the curriculum.

Check them out if you like
http://www.catlin.edu/page/1035
Like I said, there isnt too much detail posted though.

As for cultivation, try not to picture conventional farming with long rows of monoculture.

Instead, picture tight clusters of raised beds growing a diverse collection of foods, small animal husbandry consuming inedible plant matter and turning that energy lost to us into food and manure. Imagine ponds that actually serve as fish farms, with the fish "waste" feeding artificial wetlands and nourishing crops. Thats what I see anyway. Lots of little processes going on in concert with eachother and not independent or in competition with.

Below are two good links that discuss the complex but very neat process of aquaculture driven agriculture.

http://www.growseed.org/growingpower.html
http://www.bioshelters.com/

Imagine the integrated learning opportunities for that.
As for the summer problem, that is tougher, but not impossible. If full time, integrated food production were attempted at your school, I could imagine it being sustained full time this way:
Hire the adult teachers and/or facilities operators on a year basis (for full year coverage, perhaps granting them a month or two off int the winter) Integrate students for spring and fall duties, but then put on a summer program for other youth or adults even, that wish to learn about sustainable systems. Such a program could be held, utilizing all the same facilities that would go empty in the summer while providing the requisite labor to run the farms. Plus, the school could charge for these seminars, which would provide extra income.

I'd love to see some school, somewhere "get it".

As for the vehicles, simply switching a few for battery powered vehicles (assuming you have small cars for local travel) for intown use while trying some biodiesel set up for trucks/busses. Cutting down on their use also would be pretty simple to do as well.

I'd love to hear what they think.
_________________
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http://unplanning.blogspot.com

And_over · Tar Sands Joined: May 30, 2006 Posts: 45

Okay here is my list:
1. Switch from conventional lightbulbs to LEDs or CF bulbs.
Problem: I'm not sure where to get these
2. Install modern insulation such as argon gas containing double windows.
Problem: Don't know everything that's out there, don't know where to get the materials.
3. The school cafeteria produces a massive amount of waste, including vegetable oil. Maybe we could convert this waste to biodfuel to sell or power the school's cars.
Problem: Where do I get the equipment for this?
4. Attend local city counsil meetings and address local solutions to the energy problem
Problem: I wouldn't have any concrete examples to present to a hypothetical counsil
5. Weekly meetings to address energy concerns
Problem: I have a lot of information, but I need to make the club fun and interactive
6. Contacting energy providers (BP, Exxon, electric company) to find new ways to implement change.

New ideas I've com up with:
1. Energy Star products Does anyone know about that new Samsung washing machine that uses silver? Does it use less energy?
2. Use rainwater from roofs for drinking, washing bathing. But how to purify...
3. Solar panels- I know its Massachusetts, but in the summer its sunny.
Newfrom the board:
7. Buy local food
8. Grow food on campus (Greenhouse?)
9. Summer program on sustainability

I've gotten a lot of great help from you guys, and I really appreciate it, but there has been a bit of an overfocus on growing food on campus. The school is open to a lot of things, but I don't think I can convince them to sacrifice their "New England Prep" image and start growing soybeans. I could make some inroads on a sustainable agriculture greenhouse near the science center that would be pretty large, but that's about it. While I look into this doing this, and I definitly want to, I would like to refocus the discussion on energy conservation and efficency as well as agricultural practices because that is where I can make the most headway initially. Does anyone have any ideas or answers to the questions I've posted?

pea-jay: I like what you are proposing, but that sounds very expensive. The school does have a 700 million dollar endowment, but they're still stingy. I'd either have to shown some extensive cost benefits or some extreme educational value to the project, and I don't think I can do either of those on such a large scale. The main problem is land. The school has a lot of empty land, but it is interspersed with academic buildings and dorms. Plus the weather is awful for about 4-6 months of the year. I could convince them to build a pretty good sized greenhouse next to the science building. That would be a few thousand square feet, but not enough for all that. I could do a scaled down version of what you propose. It wouldn't supplement all of our food needs, but it would at least inspire the students.

As for vehicles, they have a couple of buses. I'm not sure if they run on diesel, but I'll find out. The school also maintains a few vehicles for the the public safety department. I could do batteries, but wouldn't using biodiesel from the cafeteria be as good or better?

I'm just sent an email to the head of that school in Oregon.

As for the administration here, the school is pretty focused on getting through graduation day, but the dean of students and the head of campus planning really liked my ideas. They're going to want me to show some concrete stuff before really getting the ball rolling though. There are too many people here with good ideas they never follow through on so I have to show them that I am not one of those people.
Frank:
An energy analysis would be good I guess, but I don't see how it could help to reduce energy usage.

The school has no engineering department. They have mostly just the traditional departments and courses you find at most high schools, although you can go through the second to third year of college in any particular field. A couple of courses touch on LCA, but their are no courses dedicated to it. I could talk to the bio department, but I'd need more info about what to do in such a course...

Locally produced food is one the list of things to do now. Thanks

Everyone: I had another idea, what about using rainwater for the showers, sinks, washing machines, and what not? I'm sure it's possible to do that. Does anyone have any idea who I could contact about this or how such a system would work. The water would have to be purified, is this a possibility?

I REALLY appreciate any comments, thoughts, suggestions advice, or anything. In many ways I'm over my head here so any answer to any of the questions I've raised or any new ideas is needed.

And_over · Tar Sands Joined: May 30, 2006 Posts: 45

New idea:
The school has a weekly paper and a bunch of magazines. Anyone have any thoughts on how to reduce the enrgy/resources this requires without stamping out the papers.

pea-jay · Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 3:44 am Post subject: Re: Energy Conservation Club!!

Okay, I'll reduce my food/ag related discussion. I think it is important for reasons I'll briefly discuss below, but as to your questions:

1. Unless you get a good deal on LED's your best bang for the buck is the CFL route. These can be picked up just about anywhere, but your institution is large and probably could leverage a discount. The person responsible for physical plant infrastructure (aka building engineer) probably has an idea where to put these orders in to. Two of the places I used to work at used GRAINGERS.

Here is another idea: light pipes. For single story buildings and the top floor of every building could daylight their floors and not use any day lighting whatsover.

2. Building supply firms. They are your best bet.

3. Start at Biodiesel Warehouse for ideas. A DIY solution probably could be done for under 2K, a fully operational unit that automates things for substantially more. I remember a few months back seeing a bit on CBS about a HS school's autobody shop building one of those, so we are not talking rocket science here. I also heard about some unit that will go on sale in the next few months that is marketed directly for resturaunts and convert the oil automatically. I dont know anything more about this though.

4. Dont worry, this will happen in due course. You have your work cut out for you already.

6. Not sure if contacting big oil will be of any use. Utilities can be just as clueless as the average system. When I was a planner in Central CA, I found myself explaining the energy problems to the power firm. That's not a good sign.

YOUR IDEAS:

1. Not sure about this one
2. Rainwater needs no purification. It's pretty pure (acid rain notwithstanding) already. Rainwater harvesting requires some mechanism to flush the first tenth of an inch of rain which contains the settled dust off the roofs.
3. Good Idea. Dont forget Solar Heat capture. Its close to 70-80% efficient and on sunny spells, can eliminate the need for domestic hot water heating. A spot water heater is still required for less sunny periods.

I don't know what your school is like, its geographical setting (urban/rural), size, layout so anything I say is speculation. But I do know not everything needs to be accomplished on campus. Many schools have off-campus partnerships with various businesses, farms, and other non-conventional educational settings. Some are formally owned by the school, some by the partner entity and still others, a joint venture. So when I suggested ag stuff, it doesnot all have to happen on campus; off site farming partners play their role too. It's the same example as a highschool that has a program with a high-tech employer in their town to provide hands-on learning experiences to their students whether the kids are on campus using equipment donated by the firm or at the company's facilities using specialized equipment.

Electricity powered motors are significantly more efficient than liquid fueled I.C. engines. Replacing/transitioning to electric vehicles makes more sense. Save the biodiesel for the busses.

MY VIEW:
Okay, here is my personal take on all of this. Sustainability, whether you look at it as a buzzword or not, is a good way of encapsulating everything from energy conservation to sound managerial practices. Yes, watching kilowatts used and gallons burned is important. So is being concerned about where your food comes from. But to really make a difference and go deeper is to approach the "problem" not from where we are currently experiencing difficulties like paying for fuel or where we are likely to see them in the future like procuring food supplies. Instead look at your entire existance (thinking school at the moment, but you can expand this metaphorically...) and think about it this way:

What can I do to:

1. Minimize our impact on the local environment

2. Minimize our exposure to regional, national or global crises.

3. Provide a way for the local community to sustain itself

This is how I framed "sustainability" to the mayor and council of my city I live in. And to my surprise, that is the exact wording the concil adopted at their meeting. At the moment, most of us here at PO.com are focused on number 2. But you dont solve the picture if you dont answer the other two.

You are a citizen of what is essentially a small community. (your school). And since your school is a boarding school, it is responsible for providing to you food and shelter. Now we already know, that it is not possible to expect to keep doing what we have been doing for the past century. Times are going to change. To prepare for this event, your community needs to take steps to sustain itself over the long haul. (i am assuming there is every intention of doing so...). So this means examining how your community will:
1. Provide food and water
2. Provide adaquate shelter
3. Provide a relevent education
In that order. And of course pay for it as well. Planning for FOOD SECURITY makes economic sense for a school that is responsible for feeding its students. Making sure its buildings can be kept warm, cool and lit AFFORDABLY is prudent to the bottom line. Teaching the challenges of tomorrow just makes sense.

Failure to consider any of these items (and comprehensively) can leave your community vulnerable to outside problems and tie your future and fate to the rest of your region (which I might note, is not too bad off, as opposed to a counterpart school out in Phoenix)

Anyway, that's where I am coming from on this. If you have any more info about your location, just drop us here a link. And just so you know, my former job experiences have been as a county planner responsible for natural resource issues, an energy company employee in the techical sector and before that, a school teacher and administrator. Given that weird and seemingly unrelated background, I can appreciate the challenges that preparing for the future might bring to a private school, having seen different pieces of the puzzle at different times.

Good luck. Hopefully you don't run into the brickwall when presenting anything. Check out my (old) blog on some of these topics, especially this one. It's a classic.
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http://unplanning.blogspot.com

And_over · Tar Sands Joined: May 30, 2006 Posts: 45

Saw the post, have to go to dinner in a second so I can't fully reply, but I'm including a link to the school and a map so everyone can see what the place is like.

www.andover.edu

http://www.andover.edu/about_andover/map.htm

I'll respond fully later.

And_over · Tar Sands Joined: May 30, 2006 Posts: 45

1. I just sent an email to the head of the physical plant about LEDs or CFL bulbs. I'm going to look online to find a major suppliler and see if I can get a discount for a large order.

I think we could do a few lightpipes. The problem is that a lot of the buildings are really old (nearly 200 years) and many have attics, so lighting the top floor is pointless. There are a few newer buildings on campus that I could do something with. I asked the head of the physical plant in my email about this, but I'm not too hopeful except for maybe one or two buildings.

2. Getting to it

3. I'm about to give the guy a call. The cafeteria has to feed approx. 1500 three times a day, so they produce a lot of waste. An automated kit would probably be better, but hopefully their is a regular one that cost less and can do a lare volume of biofuel a day.

2. It doesn't need purifying, but people are people and I bet they'd freak out if it wasn't. I've got an idea in my head about how to design such a system, but the internet already seems to have a wealth of info on this topic.

3. The thing I'm worried about is that during the summer almost all the buildings are empty and all the solar heat would be going to waste. With solar electric, the school could at least sell any spare capacity to the energy company. But tthis is debatable.

One note about the map, the entire campus is surronded by houses.

I like your idea about off campus stuff. I think a combination of that and a greenhouse (for the bio department) would work beautifully. I contacted my bio teacher, and he was very open to the idea.

I'll propose electric cars.