Local School Saves Money and Energy
By: Katrina Irwin
Updated: March 8, 2012
A local school district is working on ways to save. It's helping out taxpayers and the environment. In the Honeoye Falls-Lima School District, energy use is down 5.24% from last year.
"Students have been very involved in studying the energy data along with our buildings and grounds department," says Superintendent Michelle Kavanaugh, Ed.D.
They've changed the lighting inside and out and they've reduced summer workdays from five to four, which saves energy and costs. "We've been trying to schedule our evening activities primarily here at the High School because of the co-generation facility that produces it's own electricity," Kavanaugh adds.
The school has it's own co-generation system that uses natural gas. It allows the school to operate, in part, independently from RG&E. "We have found that we can produce the electricity cheaper than if we were to buy it off the grid," says Donald Mellema the Director of Buildings and Grounds for HF-L.
The district has also cut down on electric usage by using an ice storage system to cool things down. At the transportation center, they've also been working to save. Bus routes are more efficient and a grant financed preheaters for the buses. They cut down on up to an hour of idling time on cold winter mornings.
"We've noticed it all the way around not only with fuel consumption but we've also noticed we don't have the big gray cloud over us," says Peggy Potter the Director of Transportation.
Cutting down on idling can result in some big savings when you consider there 44 buses in the fleet. A new computer system also helps them keep track of where the fuel is going. So that no drop is wasted. "We know exactly what every bus takes and if one bus happens to take more, I go to that bus and say are you idling when you shouldn't be? are you parked someone you shouldn't be? Or maybe that bus just needs a tune up or some type of repair that's where the head mechanic comes in," adds Potter.
The improvements are all part of the schools 10 year master plan.
