Blair becomes more energy efficient

New compact fluorescent lights (CFL) have been installed in school hallways and most teachers now have individual desk lamps that they can use instead of the classroom lights, according to Green Club sponsor Karen Shilling. These recent changes have made Blair more energy efficient, and were brought about by initiatives by the Randolph Maintenance Depot, the Green Club, building services and MCPS School Energy and Recycling Team (SERT).

According to Shilling, Blair used nine percent less energy in the first marking period of this school year than that of the 2002-2003 school year, the benchmark year that used to compare progress. However, Blair used more energy than last year's first quarter. Even though Blair has launched new initiatives this year that have helped in energy reduction, Shilling believes that other factors such as outside temperature have led to the overall increase.

The Randolph Maintenance Depot, which handles Blair's maintenance needs, started changing many lamps in the school's main hallway from high intensity discharge (HID) lamps to CFL lamps last June because the HID lamps needed constant repair, said Jack Lewis, the depot's electrician supervisor. The HID lamps required ballasts, transformers that ignite the bulb. The HID light bulbs got hot enough to burn the ballasts and cause problems with the lighting, a problem avoided by CFL lamps, which stay cool and don't require ballasts, Lewis said. The HID lamps each contained two bulbs that would burn 175 watts and 70 watts each.

In comparison, the CFL bulbs are of 42 watts and 27 watts, said Lewis, saving a significant amount of energy and repair time. "There were big savings not just in energy but also [in] labor and man-hours," he said. SERT, which pays utility bills for MCPS and works to reduce costs through energy conservation, is glad to see the changes and would like to see CFLs being used more often in other MCPS schools, said Jim Stufft, SERT program facilitator.

CFLs use 75 percent less energy than incandescent light bulbs, a type of HID light bulbs, and can each save up to $30 over their lifetime he said. This will allow Blair to use consume less energy and have a consistent lighting system that will not malfunction.

Lewis said not all of the original HID lamps have been replaced because some have not started to malfunction. The lamps are being changed as they break, he said. "If they don't need repair they will not be changed."

In addition, Green Club bought 150 desk lamps for $25 each through money won from SERT grants at the beginning of the year, Shilling said. Green Club put a new desk lamp in every classroom so that teachers may use them when alone when the overhead classroom lights are excessive, said Shilling. Stufft estimated that if teachers used the desk lamp a few hours a day, Blair could save close to $19,000 in energy bills. Stufft said that if all schools were to do such a simple task lots of energy could be saved. "One to two hours [of using the desk lamp] for all classrooms adds up to huge savings," he said.

According to Shilling, not only do the desk lamps use one bulb, but they are also energy effiient. The desk lamps use 23-watt CFL bulbs to achieve the same intensity as a normal 100-watt bulb. SERT had proposed the idea of energy-saving desk lamps to schools but Blair has been the first school to take the initiative seriously, said Stufft. "Blair embraced [the idea] wholeheartedly and got it rolling," he said.

According to Business Manager Jim Funk, saving energy is financially beneficial to the school. "We are happy to save the energy because [SERT] gives some of the energy savings back to finance the needs of the school," he said. A school is able to earn up to $8,000 from SERT grants in order to complete other energy saving tasks, said Stufft. According to Shilling, Green Club has already won a SERT energy and recycling awareness award that came along with prize money.