Analysed the graphs and understood why some electricity is used during weekends and holidays when the school is closed. Roel volunteered to talk to the caretaker to find out why the school uses electricity when it is closed! Should we consider charging the laptops on alternate nights or something?
Activity description
Electricity baseload is often one of the quickest ways for schools to cut their electricity use and energy bills. It’s all about reducing the number of electrical items that run 24/7. Many appliances don’t need to be on all day, every day…even the photocopier deserves a rest!
In this activity, find out how to use your Energy Sparks charts to understand what your school’s baseload looks like.
Step 1: Find out when your school is using electricity
From your pupil dashboard, under ‘Explore the energy data for your school’, click on the button that says ‘Electricity’. Next, scroll down and choose ‘Pie charts’.
This page will show you what proportion of your electricity use happens:
When the school is open (green)
On school days, but when your school is closed (blue)
At weekends (yellow)
During holidays (red)
When your school is being used by the wider community, e.g. for clubs (purple)
Below you can see an example from a school. The average school uses more than 60% of their electricity when they are closed to students, and that is the case in the chart below.
Discuss:
How does your school’s chart compare?
Do you know what equipment is using electricity outside of school hours? Could any of this be switched off during evenings, weekends and holidays?
Do you know which equipment needs to be kept on all the time?
The electricity that is needed to power items that keep running at all times is called your baseload.
Your goal should be to identify and switch off the equipment that is using electricity unnecessarily, and ensure that only essential items are left on all the time.
Step 2: See if there are any patterns in your school’s baseload
From your pupil dashboard, under ‘Explore the energy data for your school’, click on the button that says ‘Electricity’. Next, scroll down and choose ‘Line graphs’. Finally, click ‘How much energy was used by lights and appliances running all the time’.
This page shows you your school’s baseload. You can click on any point in the chart and it will drill down to show you the full electricity usage on that day.
Below we have shared a few example charts and have suggested what these might mean. Compare these to your school’s chart to see if you can spot any similar patterns.
Example 1:
This school’s chart (above) has a pattern of high electricity baseload on weekdays, and low electricity baseload at weekends. If your chart has this pattern, it might be because people are better at turning off equipment on a Friday evening than during the week. Or maybe you have automatic timers that fire equipment up on a Monday morning and turn it off on a Friday night.
Example 2:
This school’s baseload chart (above) shows two sudden increases in electricity happening in October and November. If your chart has big spikes like this, think about what might have caused it.
Example 3:
This school’s chart (above) shows that their baseload is much higher during the winter than the summer. If your chart looks like this, it is likely that your school has electric heating that is being left on overnight.
Discuss:
Can you spot any of these patterns in your school’s chart?
What improvements might you need to make at your school?
How might you go about this? Think about:
What information you might need
Who needs to be involved
What to do next:
Work through our Beat your baseload programme to identify what is happening at your school and reduce electricity waste at your school.
Don’t forget to record each activity once you have completed it. This will help you collect points for our scoreboard competition and allow you to see whether your actions are working as expected. (Here’s how to do it, if you’re not sure).
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