One Tuesday this week, Mr. Cressman, Sage, Mae, Tess and Sydney did a energy audit at Jackman. We secretly spied on empty rooms to make sure the lights were turned off. We also checked the computers and other electronics to see if they were wasting energy. Here’s what we learned...
- Most classrooms had their lights turned off when no one was in the room! Impressive!
- Some classes even had the lights off when they were in the room. They used daylight (from windows) instead of electric lights. Great idea!
- Some classes turn on half the lights instead of all the lights. That’s a step in the right direction.
- Our VP turned off his office overhead lights and used a small, energy-efficient desk lamp instead. Bravo, M. Frenette.
- The 3rd floor kid washrooms have light switches. Sometimes they’re turned off, sometimes not. Most of the time, the staff washrooms had the lights turned off.
- Shared rooms (kitchen, staffroom and copy room) sometimes had lights turned off, sometimes not. We can do better!
- Gym lights are often left on. Maybe we can convince the gym teachers to consider turning the lights out when possible.
- We could use some ‘fresh’ signs to remind everyone to turn lights off.
- Luckily, our computers are all set to go to sleep or stand-by when they are not being used. But get this... we learned how to change the power options for computers in the control panel. We can make our computers even more energy efficient. We should teach everyone how to do this.
- Computer monitors were consistently left on in most classrooms. We could conserve energy with a simple touch of a button (especially at night).
- Other electronics were investigated - pencil sharpeners, printers, Smartboards, fans and cd players. They could be turned off (or unplugged) more often.
- There's a laptop cart (with many old computers) stored in room 215. It’s plugged in. We can hear it sucking up energy. Does anyone still use these laptops? Can we charge them more strategically? We need to figure this out.
