This page provides help for anyone using the Energy Sparks website.
Making energy data more accessible
Energy Sparks makes understanding your energy use easier by presenting it in several different ways:
Alerts and Energy saving opportunities - these highlight sudden changes in energy use (e.g. leaving the heating on during a holiday), and identify areas to prioritise when deciding how to take action.
Key insights - presenting the key metrics and data needed to monitor your energy use and the success of energy efficiency measures. For example, how much gas is is used out of hours, or whether electricity usage has increased over the last year.
Detailed analysis - interactive charts and tables that allow deeper exploration of current and historical energy use.
By presenting information for different audiences, at different levels of detail, we aim to make it easier for everyone in the school community to get involved in reducing energy use and carbon emissions.
While alerts are presented on the school dashboard and in weekly emails, the rest of the analysis is available in our advice pages.
What is an advice page?
An advice page explores a specific aspect of a school’s energy use. Each page focuses on a particular topic, e.g. out of school hours gas or electricity use.
The advice pages are designed for older pupils and adult users of Energy Sparks. Much of the analysis should be accessible to KS3 to KS5 pupils. Some of the more advanced analysis options such as boiler control are most relevant to Building or Site Managers.
Like all of the analysis on Energy Sparks, the information on each page is updated daily, using the latest available data for your school.
Each advice page is organised into three sections: Insights, Analysis and Learn more.
Insights
The insights section is an 'at a glance' overview of your energy use in this area.
An insights section includes:
A brief explanation of the topic area (e.g. “What is baseload?”), to help you understand its relevance.
Key metrics based on our analysis of your current energy use in this area.
A comparison of how your energy use compares with other similar schools.
Recommended pupil activities and energy saving actions you should take to reduce energy use in this area.
Analysis
The analysis section helps you get a detailed understanding of your energy use in this area.
An analysis section includes:
Interactive charts that allow exploration of the underlying data, with advice on what to look for.
Tables that present the energy use, costs and carbon emissions associated with this area.
Commentary on potential improvements and savings your school could make.
If we only have limited data for your school, e.g. 1-2 months, then not all of this analysis may be available.
As we add more data for your school, or if we are able to access additional historical data, we will automatically present more detail on longer-term trends and begin benchmarking your energy use with similar schools.
Learn more
The learn more section provides a more in-depth explanation of this energy efficiency topic, including:
What to look for in your data.
Common causes of high or sudden changes in energy use.
Suggestions of practical solutions to reduce energy use and emissions.
Where are our advice pages?
The advice pages for your school can be accessed via your Energy efficiency overview which is available from:
The school's Adult dashboard - choose "Explore energy data".
The My School menu, when logged in as a school user.
Down the left side of the Energy efficiency overview page, you will find links to all of the advice pages available for your school. The list of pages will depend on what energy data we can access for your school. This may include data for your electricity, gas and storage heaters, as well as data from your solar monitoring system.
On the Energy efficiency overview page, we also highlight the topic areas that need most attention, labelling them as "Action needed", "Well managed" or "Exemplar".
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