Tips for schools and trusts on working as a team to reduce heating waste
Energy saving is a team effort. In this article, we talk about key actions that different groups and team members should take to save energy in winter…
Avoid overwhelm: work as a team
One person alone can’t drive lasting change. That’s why we recommend that you build a team of people to help your school cut energy bills, reduce carbon emissions and inspire young climate leaders.
In a leadership newsletter earlier this year, we talked about what a strong sustainability team might look like; drawing on skills and responsibilities of the leadership team, estates teams, teachers, other staff and of course, the pupils.
You can save energy in winter – here’s how
We’re in the grip of winter now, and you may be feeling a degree of energy bill anxiety – perhaps compounded by the sense that there is little you can do to cut costs while the weather is so cold.
The good news is that most schools can cut energy costs during winter – even without capital investment.
Building on the idea that energy saving is a team effort, here is our advice on where different groups across your school should focus their attention at this time of year to maximise savings…
Multi-Academy Trust or Local Authority team:
There is a lot of variation in the organisational structures and relationships between Trusts/Local Authorities. Having a tool like Energy Sparks can help central teams to see which schools need more support and in the longer term might require capital investment.
Tools within the group dashboard – such as our comparison reports – provide information on which to base decision making, prioritisation, communications and support. These reports can show which schools use the most energy during holidays, which use the most gas per square meter or which have their heating coming on earliest in the morning.
None on this information on its own can point to a problem – every school is different – but if something looks unusual, it is worth investigating.
Leadership team:
As above, the best decisions are based on good information. So we strongly recommend tasking someone with analysing your winter and holiday performance. Not sure how? Take a look at our recent articles: What to look for after a holiday and How to spot problems now your heating is on.
Once you have a sense of what the picture looks like at your school(s), why not watch our video for advice on how to prioritise your energy saving efforts. We also have guidance on how to set an energy saving target.
Setting and clearly communicating your energy saving priorities and targets will help ensure that your school community feels empowered to act, and will help you maintain an appropriate level of focus on energy saving alongside your other responsibilities.
Estates team:
It may sound counterintuitive, but winter is actually the time when estates teams or caretakers can make the biggest individual difference.
That’s because evidence shows that most schools have improvements to make with their heating set-up. Often this is because heating or Building Management Systems (BMS) are not working as expected.
We recommend that facilities teams take the following key actions during winter. You will know best how frequently these checks need to be made at your school, but we’ve included our suggestions:
- Every week – dedicate 10 minutes to check your Energy Sparks alerts and key charts. We suggest using your Wednesday alert email as a prompt. Read our tips on how to spot problems once your heating is on.
- Once a week – check that your thermostats and radiator valves (TRVs) are still set correctly and nobody has adjusted the settings without you knowing. Your pupils can help with this!
- Once per half-term – check that your frost protection settings and other central heating and hot water settings are still working as expected and are adjusted to current temperatures if necessary.
- If you haven’t already – check whether you can optimise your heating timing. Boilers coming on too early and staying on too long is one of the biggest causes of gas waste. With experimentation, you can usually make changes without affecting the comfort of school users.
- Make sure your heating set temperature matches DfE recommendations – again, heating set too high is one of the biggest causes of gas waste in schools.
- Make sure your heating (and your hot water, as long as your school or trust’s health & safety policies allow this) is set to switch off at weekends and during holidays.
Northampton Academy cut their gas consumption by 40%
and saved £34,000 and more than 80 tonnes CO₂
in their first year of using Energy Sparks.
Read our interview with their Facilities Manager, David Reed,
to find out how they achieved this.
Teachers and pupils:
The small sustainability actions we take can really add up – especially when it comes to cutting energy use in school.
Our Get Energised! programme highlights some of the key actions that teaching staff and pupils can take to fight climate change together.
If you have any students participating in the Duke of Edinburgh’s (DofE) Award, then why not take a look at our new volunteering programmes for Bronze and Silver participants. Having DofE participants take a leading role in planning and implementing energy saving actions can benefit both them and your school – especially when it comes to actions that require a whole-school effort.
