Switched off hot water at weekends
Heating hot water can consume 40% of a school's overall gas consumption, switch off at the weekend to save energy
30 points for this action
Overview
50% of schools' gas is consumed when they are closed. This is very wasteful and represents the easiest opportunity to save energy.
Hot water supplied by gas boilers is surprisingly inefficient in schools. On average, schools on Energy Sparks are only 15% efficient at providing hot water. This is because, in order to deliver water quickly to taps, hot water is continuously circulating on a network around the school called a ‘circulatory hot water system.’ Even if this network is well insulated, it is continuously losing heat. As a result, the gas used to heat hot water is very inefficient. On average, heating hot water consumes 40% of a school’s overall gas consumption.
A short term solution is to ensure that the hot water is only circulating during the school day and is turned off out of hours, at weekends and during holidays (subject to Legionella flushing at the end of long holidays).
A long term option is to replace the hot water system with point of use electric water heaters which can be much more efficient.
Energy Sparks charts allow you to find out whether gas is being consumed at weekends. You can drill down on most charts by clicking on the graphs. Look at a recent weekend, was the gas on?
Hot water supplied by gas boilers is surprisingly inefficient in schools. On average, schools on Energy Sparks are only 15% efficient at providing hot water. This is because, in order to deliver water quickly to taps, hot water is continuously circulating on a network around the school called a ‘circulatory hot water system.’ Even if this network is well insulated, it is continuously losing heat. As a result, the gas used to heat hot water is very inefficient. On average, heating hot water consumes 40% of a school’s overall gas consumption.
A short term solution is to ensure that the hot water is only circulating during the school day and is turned off out of hours, at weekends and during holidays (subject to Legionella flushing at the end of long holidays).
A long term option is to replace the hot water system with point of use electric water heaters which can be much more efficient.
Energy Sparks charts allow you to find out whether gas is being consumed at weekends. You can drill down on most charts by clicking on the graphs. Look at a recent weekend, was the gas on?