Enigin Distributor Maryland Green Power Company have reported the following on there blog:
Relax. We’re not going to grab your children and put them on a hamster wheel attached to a generator set and pump electrical power back into the grid via a net-metering interconnect. No. Not even if they have ADHD. You can do that on your own if you like.
However, we would like to congratulate the middle school members of Roland Park Elementary and Middle School’s Environmental Club in Baltimore, MD for their creativity and astuteness in saving energy.
Besides the leadership role many of these pupils play in their community, including one young lady who was organizing a fundraiser to collect funds for a solar energy project, they also have a talent for observing what many working-age members of our community overlook: That is, one does not have to spend a fortune on high-tech gadgets, renewable energy and high-efficiency appliances to make a big difference.
A great example of how an employee initiative program might work occurrred after MGPC installed an Enigin second-generation Eniscope in one electrical sub-panel serving a small wing of RPEMS. That afternoon, we spent just over an hour speaking to RPEMS Environmental Club members about energy, and what constitute energy waste. The children caught on fast.
The next step was to take the pupils on an “Energy Walk” very similar to how we would with a company’s employees, but much more brief, and without the benefit of wireless monitoring devices used with typical EnergyMaps applications such as convenience stores, restaurants and grocery stores. The first stop was the computer lab next door, where dozens of desktop computers displayed dark screens in a dark classroom. How much energy were they using?
The first guess of “none” was quickly interrupted by another’s observation that the screens are blank, but many of the monitors were left on. Further inspection revealed that many of the desktops themselves were left on too.
We showed the pupils the nameplate data on the backs of the monitors and computers, where they were able to confirm that each monitor was still consuming about 200 watts of power, and each desktop computer was consuming about 150 watts. We counted 4 computers and 5 monitors still operating, giving us 1600 wasted watts of power.
Assuming worst case, that is, that the night-time cleaning crew is not green-minded enough to turn this equipment off, then we can state that all of the computers and monitors run during normal school hours, but on average 4 computers and 5 monitors are left on for the other 16 hours and weekends.
So, kWh wasted on weekdays = 1.6 kW x 16 hours / day x 5 days = 128,000 watt hours or 128 kWh.
And, kWh wasted on weekends = 1.6 kW x 24 hours / day x 2 days = 76,800 watt hours or 76.8 kWh.
Cost of wasted energy in just this one room = $ 0.15 / kWh x (128 kWh + 76.8 kWh) = $ 30.72 / week, or $ 122 per month, or $ 1,597 annually!
Not a bad job for 6-8 graders!
Now, if this system, along with the training program and 6-month data analysis costs $ 91.00 per month, and only a small portion of what was monitored uncovered $ 122 per month savings with the help of school children, would you say that the program was a good investment? It is returning over 33% more than its cost in savings!
Of course, we didn’t even take into account the benefits of real-time energy monitoring or data-logging which make this program even more valuable, nor the additional savings possible when implementing load-side solutions, but we’ve made the point already: Would you spend $ 91 to save $ 122 ? Of course!
Maybe that’s why BG&E is planning on investing over $ 300 BILLION on similar programs.
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