Energy Reduction Toolkit for Finance Teams in Education

Schools, colleges and universities are facing growing pressure to control costs whilst continuing to provide comfortable, safe and effective learning environments.

Energy is a significant part of that challenge.

At BMSI, we have supported Primary, Secondary, Further and Higher Education establishments across the UK for more than 30 years. Since BMSI was formed in 1998, our work in education has focused on helping organisations understand how their buildings are operating, where energy is being used and where improvements can be made.

We do this through energy monitoring equipment, software, analysis and reporting, alongside Building Management Systems designed to meet the needs of complex and constantly changing education environments.

But not every energy-saving opportunity requires a major investment.

Our teams survey dozens of schools every year, and one of the most common things we see is that there are often no-cost or low-cost opportunities available before larger projects even need to be considered.

This toolkit is designed to help finance and facilities teams start asking the right questions.

Your Electricity Data

Your half-hourly electricity and utility data will not answer every energy question for you, but it can show you where to start looking.

Contact your energy supplier and ask for two years of half-hourly data. They are legally obliged to provide this.

Once you have it, use the information to build an average consumption profile from Monday to Sunday and make sure you can filter it by date. Then compare that profile with the actual operational hours of the school.

When does energy consumption begin to rise in the morning?

If consumption starts increasing well before staff and pupils arrive, that period may represent an opportunity for reduction.

The same applies at the other end of the day. Look at how long it takes after the school closes for consumption to return to its normal baseline.

It is also worth checking what that baseline looks like. It will never be zero because certain systems need to continue operating, including alarms, refrigeration and emergency lighting. As a general guide, baseline consumption may sit somewhere around 10 to 20% of peak demand.

Small amounts of unnecessary consumption can look insignificant on one day. Multiplied across an entire year, they become much more important.

Engagement

Energy reduction works best when it is not treated as the responsibility of one person or one department.

Finance teams will naturally have a strong interest in reducing bills. Facilities teams will need to be involved in any changes to plant operation or building schedules. Heads of department can help identify where energy is being used unnecessarily within their own areas.

Pupils can play an important role too.

One useful starting point is to turn energy data into a project. IT or maths classes, for example, could look at consumption patterns and identify where inefficiencies appear.

It is also important to approach this in the right way.

In many cases, it may be the first time anybody has highlighted an inefficiency in the building. The aim should not be to assign blame. It should be to create a safe environment where teams can understand what is happening and work together to improve it.

Your Plant

Most schools already have a Building Management System in place.

The BMS automates the operation of energy-consuming equipment such as boilers, boiler pumps, heating, lighting, air conditioning and Air Handling Units.

This equipment can generally be set to Auto, Off or Hand.

When equipment is in Auto, it is being controlled by the BMS. When it is put into Hand, it is effectively being told to stay on.

We often find plant that has been taken out of BMS control, and usually, there is a practical reason behind it.

A facilities team may need to make sure a building is comfortable for a parents’ evening, event or other activity. If they are not confident changing schedules or setpoints within the BMS, switching equipment into Hand can feel like the quickest and safest option.

The problem is that it can then be forgotten.

A simple audit of your plant rooms can therefore be extremely useful. Check what is operating in Hand and investigate why it is no longer being controlled by the BMS.

Holiday Preparation

School holidays provide another useful opportunity to look at energy performance.

Your half-hourly data should show much lower consumption during holiday periods, although there may still be staff on site or areas hired out to external groups.

The important question is whether the level of consumption matches the level of activity.

If energy use during a holiday is 50% of normal term-time consumption, does that reflect the fact that 50% of the building is open or that around 50% of normal activity is taking place?

If not, there may be unnecessary energy use.

A clear shutdown process can help make sure only the systems required to protect the building and support occupied areas remain operational.

It is also worth considering whether the energy cost of keeping the school open is reflected in the charges applied to holiday clubs and hired facilities.

Where staff access is required, there may also be value in grouping attendance into set days. If opening the building is not essential, working from home may avoid the cost of running systems for a very small number of people.

Seasonal Preparation

Winter and summer place very different demands on a building, and plant operation should reflect that.

Start by looking at your utility data.

Is there a clear difference between summer and winter gas and electricity consumption?

We would normally expect electricity and gas use to be lower during summer because of warmer temperatures and longer daylight hours.

If the difference is relatively small, it is worth asking why.

Could heating start later in the morning during warmer periods? Could it switch off earlier in the afternoon? Could setpoints be reduced?

Natural light should also be taken into account wherever possible.

The aim is not to compromise comfort. It is to make sure plant operation reflects actual seasonal conditions rather than following the same approach throughout the year.

Operational Hours

Another useful area to review is what happens after core teaching hours finish.

Most schools have core teaching hours until around 3pm, with extracurricular activities continuing until somewhere between 4pm and 5pm.

Use your half-hourly electricity data to look at the energy being consumed between the end of the school day and the point when staff leave the building.

If only a small number of people remain on site, providing full heating, lighting and air handling across large parts of the school may not be necessary.

This could be another opportunity to reduce energy consumption and the associated costs.

Again, the individual daily saving may not appear particularly large. Across 52 weeks, it can become significant.

Sustainability Focus Group

Education buildings are extremely dynamic environments.

Occupancy changes throughout the day, rooms are used for different purposes and activities can change at short notice. Gaining control over energy use therefore requires engagement from the people using the building.

A sustainability focus group can help build that engagement.

This could include responsibility for reviewing half-hourly energy data each month, identifying areas of the checklist that pupils can manage as projects, and creating energy champions within the student body.

Energy monitors can also act as eyes and ears around the school, reporting equipment or lighting that has been left operating unnecessarily.

There is also an educational benefit.

Our own apprentices often tell us they chose careers in Building Management Systems because they enjoyed STEM subjects and wanted to apply those skills within a sustainable and green industry.

Giving pupils practical involvement in energy reduction can help connect classroom learning with real-world outcomes.

Further Support

At BMSI, we are specialists in energy management and Building Management Systems.

Our energy managers can help you analyse your energy consumption free of charge. If you provide us with your data, we can carry out an initial analysis to help identify where you may want to look first.

We are also happy to support schools that want to build momentum around these initiatives and better understand what their existing systems are telling them.

Once the no-cost and low-cost opportunities have been explored, there may be further areas where better control, improved BMS management or energy optimisation can deliver additional savings.

If your data has highlighted areas you would like to investigate further, contact the BMSI team to discuss how we can help you bring your buildings and energy consumption under better control.

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