Energy-efficiency investment already paying off for board

With “year one” calculations now in, the Rainy River District School Board is reporting success so far with the implementation of its $2.6-million Energy Retrofit and Renewal Program.
The project, in partnership with Honeywell Inc., had the board investing to make school buildings more energy-efficient, with a 10-year payback period to recover the capital upfront costs.

Of the $2.6 million plan, $900,000 was covered by the province’s “Good Places to Learn” grant, $582,773 came from the school renewal funding from 2006/07 and 2007/08, and the final $1.1 million came from the board’s working funds reserve.
Upon implementing their recommended measures, Honeywell guaranteed an annual savings of $162,473 in energy costs over the 10 years.
Year one (November, 2007 to October, 2008) saw a savings of $221,663—almost $60,000 above the estimated yearly savings.
“So far savings are exceeding our guarantee, but there’s going to be fluctuations from year to year,” cautioned Raymond Roy, manager of plant operations and maintenance for the board.
“But we’re very happy with what’s happened so far.”
“The results coming back show us that there is cost-savings, and I think it was prudent of the board to go ahead with that project at the time, and we are realizing cost-savings now,” noted board chair Dan Belluz.
“With the cost of energy probably going up again, we will probably realize more savings in the coming years,” he added.
Besides the monetary savings, the retrofitting project has meant that in year one, some 1,142,951 kWg of energy was saved and 58,494 cubic meters of gas savings across the board.
Changes at Fort High meant a total of 590,805 gallons of water also was saved.
Since first starting off on the project, “a lot of different measures” were put in place across the board, said Roy.
“We did an audit of all our schools to find out where our energy usage was at and then through this program, we did all sorts of upgrades with lighting and mechanical control systems and with the partnership of Honeywell,” he explained.
“They guaranteed that if we did all these measures, we would save some money, so that’s generally speaking what happened.
“We’re getting the savings that were indicated.”
Changes that have been brought in include upgrading classrooms to have T8 lighting, and dims updated to T5, Roy cited.
This change has benefitted the students themselves, noted Belluz.
“One of the pros of it is the comfort of the students in the schools,” he stressed. “Lighting is much better. It’s a plus for the students and its cost-savings to boot.”
Motion sensors, as well as C02 detectors for heating systems, also were the type of energy-saving tools installed.
Gas savings came from upgrading antique equipment to the more energy-efficient things, such as energy boilers, Roy said, or having variable speed drives on fan motors so they can run at different capacities instead of just being on or off.
Weatherstripping to all doors and windows, along with installing energy-efficient windows and doors, were some of the other things done, he added.
“I think the big thing with gas savings is we put a building automation system in all our schools and that allows us to centrally control and schedule all our major building components,” Roy noted.
“Before, for example, say we had a heating system at a particular school. In the wintertime, it was on the whole time. Now we can schedule it so that when the building isn’t occupied, we can set it back a couple of degrees.”
“It still runs, but we don’t have to keep the building quite as warm on the weekend.
“And with the building automation system, we can schedule it so that it automatically comes on, say, 6 o’clock Monday morning so that it’s warm for when the students and staff get there.”
As for the water savings at Fort High, Roy said that mainly came from installing low-flow toilets, aerators in the washroom faucets, and motion detectors on urinals so they only would flush when somebody was there.
“They were fairly simple measures but they produced that much savings,” he stressed.
“Because this is so successful, we are going to be looking at a Phase II program that would do further energy savings,” Roy added, though noting this is at a very early stage.
“We’re definitely trying to design our new schools to be as energy-efficient as we can afford,” said Belluz, referring to further energy-saving projects.
“Every dollar we save on energy, we can spend on students,” he reasoned.