Understand your school's baseload

What does your school use electricity for?

Some of those items could be switched off overnight but some of them need to be kept on all the time (at least during term time).  The electricity that is needed to power items that keep running at all times is called your baseload.  This can be measured by how much electricity is being consumed when the school is empty (evenings, weekends and holidays).

Why would you want to keep paying for electricity when no one is in school?  Cutting down on this means cutting costs plus reducing your carbon footprint.

Look at the following graphs.  Each point on the graphs show the average amount of electricity being used during out of hours periods each day. For one of these schools, its baseload changes quite a lot from day to day. For the other, baseload remains quite consistent - for most of the year.

Can you see how the baseload in the first example varies wildly from day to day?  This means that the baseload is not consistent.  From one day to another different amounts of electricity are being used and different amounts of equipment are left running when the school is closed.

Let’s look at the second example again.  Can you see how in October 2024 something dramatically changed?
What do you think the cause of this might have been?
a. All electrical items were switched off
b. Something that uses a little bit of electricity was left on
c. Something that uses a lot of electricity was left on
d. A new piece of equipment was installed

Look at your school



Look carefully at the graph.  How has the baseload changed over time?
Does it change seasonally (from summer to winter)?
Are there any unusual spikes or drops?
What stories can you tell by looking at the data?   
Click on the graph and compare school days with weekends and holidays.  Is electricity being used at the same time every day?

Answers

What does your school use electricity for?

Lights, photocopiers, computers, coffee machines, fridges and freezers, laptop/tablet trolleys, ICT servers, water coolers, interactive whiteboards, technical equipment, sound systems, TVs, printers, telephones, 

Let’s look at the second example again.  Can you see how in October 2024 something dramatically changed.  What do you think the cause of this might have been?

This school had a temporary swimming pool installed on its playground.