Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon

Project Details:

Project goal: Reducing Crosby-Ironton High School’s Carbon Emissions

Objective 1: Reduce and/or eliminate phantom electrical energy use by eliminating the phantom load on electronic devices and appliances that are not in use or “off.”

Task A: Work with the classroom teachers, install power strips in every room with electronic devices or appliances to eliminate the phantom energy use of equipment like computer monitors, DVD players etc. Sub-task 1: Purchase and install power strips in each classroom
Sub-task 2: Work with the school staff, through the use of power strips and behavioral changes to completely shut down devices when they leave for the night.

Progress Report: The strips are ordered and will be installed this fall. I will be speaking with the teaching staff about turning things off when we leave for the day, weekend, or break. Student teams will be monitoring our success in the behavioral changes necessary to make this effective. I have also spoken with the custodial staff about double checking and unplugging devices during the summer months when the buildings are empty. We have copies of the data for the entire school year, 2009-2010, so that we may monitor the effectiveness of our objective.

Objective 2: Make our building as energy efficient as possible, thereby lowering our heating and cooling costs and reducing our carbon emissions.

Task B: Work with the school buildings operations personnel to analyze the building structure for areas of energy inefficiency Sub-task 1: Purchase a color infrared camera
Sub-task 2: Thoroughly inspect all parts of the school building for proper insulation, sealing, and energy efficiency on an annual basis.
Sub-task 3: Students will present their findings to the school administration and building operations personnel. The school district has agreed to listen to the findings and work with our students.
Time frame and Schedule: When the funds become available, we will begin to work with the buildings operation personnel on a methodical and precise way to evaluate the school’s energy efficiency. It will be essential to consider seasonal changes in the operations of the building. The project will continue indefinitely with the potential to expand into the community.

Person(s) responsible: Science Teachers Mike Gindorff and Robert Kuschel
Deliverable/Result: By identifying areas of the building in need of energy efficient repair and upgrades, our school district will be able to budget and plan for current and future maintenance, in addition to the reduced carbon emissions and cost savings on utilities. Students will also get an opportunity to work with state of the art technology that is already in use at the top universities and high schools across the country. This is a rarity in a rural high school especially during tough economic times. Students may eventually be able to use the technology on their own homes, thereby facilitating continued reduction of the carbon footprint in the student’s lives. An exact calculation of the reduction of carbon emissions is difficult to predict because we will be creating the database from which to work. This study will impact both electrical and natural gas usage for our building. This project will use teams of selected students and begin monitoring data available through the SEE program.

Progress Report: Ordering the camera proved more difficult than expected with the camera we had originally looked at being discontinued between the time of the grant writing and time of purchase. Bill Tollefson worked with the camera manufacturer to get an alternative. We are in the process of learning how to use the camera and student teams will be formed this fall with building evaluation to follow.