Run a campaign to switch off electrical equipment overnight

Oasis Academy - Immingham, Wednesday, 13 March 2024
30 Change-maker KS1, KS2, KS3

What you did

The ecoclub have been evaluating the school baseload electricity use and it has been identified that our school has a high baseload. Our aim with the campaign is to reduce the school baseload and keep it down. The Ecoclub conducted a survey of all electrical equipment in the classrooms and corridors. This was recorded and reported to HR for her to evaluate and advise on how to reduce the baseload. During our survey we identified that there were 17 additional staff fridges being used in the academy and not turned off on a weekend and evening. This has been reduced to 7 compulsory fridges in staff communal areas and HR have advised that they must be switched off on weekends, holidays and evenings. 
Students have also created colour coded labels for classrooms for the classroom monitor to follow and know which items to switch off or leave on. 
Ecoclub will monitor whether these are being used by completing checks at lunch times and evenings. 

Activity description

Your school should only use a small amount of electricity overnight for items such as fridges, freezers and servers. It is likely though that your school is leaving other items on overnight. An out-of-hours survey will help you identify these items so they can be switched off.  This is your baseload.

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  1. Undertake a detailed survey of all school rooms - 
    • Don’t forget the boiler room, services rooms and outside. Identify electrical items left on unnecessarily, looking particularly at exterior lighting, IT equipment, electric hot water heaters, pumps and other plant room equipment. 
    • Make a list for each room of the electrical equipment and apply a coloured sticker to the switch of each device. A traffic light coding system should be used for the stickers as follows:
      •  Green indicates equipment should be switched off when not in use (e.g. PCs, lighting). 
      • Amber indicates equipment should be switched off after ensuring no-one is using it. 
      • Red Do not touch. Equipment should not be switched off (e.g. fridges, freezers and network servers). 
  2. Note: shapes can be used with the colours to assist those that may be colour blind. 
  3. Switch off all equipment labelled with a green or amber sticker. 
  4. Measure your reduced energy use – After switching off all unnecessary electricity users, it is good to check the savings. Use the Energy Sparks charts to compare your school's energy use  across the day before and after the switch off campaign.
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  5. Repeat these checks regularly to check your overnight load does not start to rise above the ‘best practice’ level you measured above. 
  6. Make extra checks when you close up for the school holidays – leaving equipment on over the holidays will use a lot of unnecessary electricity. 

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