At Eco Club today 30 of us piled into room 3 to listen to Mr. Cox and Mr. Heighton tell us about how much energy we waste in our new school building. Mr. Heighton showed us an electricity meter that measures how much an appliance uses (see below). He plugged a computer in as a demonstration. We found out that even if a computer is switched off, if the plug is on at the mains it still pulls power. We worked out that if all the computers were left in this state then it costs the school nearly £10 a day (thats about £3500 a year). If the computers are left on but not used it costs £80 a day! Not only can we save a lot of money but also a lot of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) being released. Remember that CO2 is a “Greenhouse” gas that contributes to Global Warming.
We have decided to do something about it and most of the Eco Clubbers have volunteered to help turn appliances off at the end and during the day. Mr. Cox will also investigate whether the building management system can shut down power centrally. Our main aim is to cut the electricity use of the school as much as possible and this will start by monitoring our use more carefully.
