South West Essex Community Education Trust

Understanding how a school's energy use matches up with other schools of a similar size and how much energy could be saved each year is a good place to start.

These savings are based on comparing gas usage over the last 12 months against the best performing schools.

Electricity baseload is the electricity needed to provide power to appliances that keep running at all times. It can be the fastest way of reducing a school's energy costs and reducing its carbon footprint.

These figures represent a comparison of school baseload over the last 12 months against the best performing schools.

Turning the boiler off in warm weather, for example earlier in the spring and later in the winter, can reduce gas usage.

These savings are based on our analysis of when the heating has been on in schools during warm weather. View the detailed analysis for each school for more information.

Even the best performing schools can reduce energy usage by turning down the heating.

Getting the heating control right for your schools can save money and carbon very quickly as well as improving the learning environment for students.

Out of hours gas use is the amount of gas used when the school is closed - overnight, at weekends and during the holidays. Reducing out of hours gas use is one of the easiest, and cheapest ways of saving lots of energy.

These figures are based on a comparison of gas usage outside of school hours against the best performing schools. Ensuring that school opening hours are up to date will improve the accuracy of the analysis.