Who are we?
Measures energy saving at our school
To find out the measures we conducted an interview with M. Israël. He told us about the different ways of energy saving at our school. Our school is at this moment busy with the placement of LED lights that have a motion sensor, so the lights turn off when there is no movement in the room. The settings of the Central Heating and the ventilation are set in such a way that they go on and off at the right moments (to make sure they do not turn on in the holidays or in the evenings). Nehalennia has 320 solar panels. We also have double layered glass, that means that inside the glass there is sun protecting layer. The big investmets like the solar panels are placed by the installer Sinto. But the smaller investments like the LED lamps are placed by the school itself. The energy label at our school is B.
The measures of energy savings at school are effecient. In 2017 and 2018 the did not really had many new measurements. But in 2019 the amount of kWh that the school uses had decreased by 16% compared to 2018(kWh is how many kilo(thousand)Watts per hour are used). The main cause of this was the placement of the solar panels. In October 2020 the amount of kWh had decreased 37% compared to 2019.
The company we contacted
In schools, a lot of energy is used. Especially for heating, ventilation and lights. To save energy there are a lot of possibilities, for the heating you can take a look at the Central Heating. It is good if the Central Heating has a high efficiency, because then the power needed to get room temperature is not much. It also should not be on if everyone is gone. If the Central Heating is really old, you can replace it with a more sustainable one and then you can save up to 20% of energy.
Schools furthermore must ventilated well, but this causes a lot of heat loss. To prevent this, you can place a device which reuses the heat in the ventilation air to heat the fresh air that is coming in. This is called reused warm radiation.
Often schools use old-fashioned TL lamps. By replacing them for LED lights and providing them with motion sensors or a tier you can save up to 50% of energy.
But most important, schools need good isolation, because otherwise there will be heat loss. So, place isolating glass, provide the rood and the facades of a thick isolation layer this can save up to 70% of gas use. You can use for example glass- or rock woo(isolation), but also PUR or PIR (hard foam material).
Student interviews
At first we went to the aula to approach some people. Everyone was very nice and responded well to our questions. After a
while we also asked some pupils from our own class a couple of questions. They also gave good, interesting responses. Here are the interviews.
Megan (16) says: ‘I know they have solar panels on the roof of the second floor. Which is sustainable. They produce lots of energy and a lot of money is saved. However, I do not really think our school does a lot to save energy.’
Todd (14) says: ‘I think school saves energy by having solar panels.’
Norah (12) says: ‘Actually, I do not really know. But I do think it is important that the school does do something to help the enviroment.'
Noanne (16) says: ‘I know we have lots of solar panels. And in the toilets, we have a motion sensor, so we do not waste any energy by have the lights switched on. I cannot really think of any other measures, but there should be more measures in my opinion.'
Mare (14) says: ‘First of all, the school has solar panels, which is good. However, the school wastes energy by having open windows and open doors, while the heaters are on all the time.'
Tygo (13) says: ‘I do not really know about measures the school takes to save energy, but they do use green energy.
So the energy is made sustainably.’
Lynn (13) says: ‘I know that in the winter the windows are mostly closed, and in the summer they are opened a lot.’
Evi (14) says: ‘To be honest I think that the school wastes more energy than it saves energy. For example: In the winter the windows are open, while the heater is on. I know this is because of Covid-19, but I still think they could take better measures. I also know that they have solar panels on the roof of the school. That is of course environmentally friendly. But I still think that we waste quite some energy and that can be changed.'
Gaia (14) says: ‘I think the school is wasting energy by opening the windows(because of Corona of course) when at the same time the heating is on.'
Frederik (14) says: ‘I know that they isolate the walls, which is a good measure. But I do not think thats enough.’
Our conclusion:
Most people know that our school has solar panels and this provides green energy. Also, the lights are not on if not necessary by using sensors. These measures already save quite some energy. But the school could do more about saving energy. Take for example some things that the people said that we interviewed.
One of those things was that the heaters are on while the windows are open. This of course is an unnecessary waste of energy. Maybe they could consider closing more windows and making sure the heater is not too high.
In these pie charts you can see whether they mentioned the following things.
At first we went to the aula to approach some people. Everyone was very nice and responded well to our questions. After a
while we also asked some pupils from our own class a couple of questions. They also gave good, interesting responses. Here are the interviews.
Megan (16) says: ‘I know they have solar panels on the roof of the second floor. Which is sustainable. They produce lots of energy and a lot of money is saved. However, I do not really think our school does a lot to save energy.’
Todd (14) says: ‘I think school saves energy by having solar panels.’
Norah (12) says: ‘Actually, I do not really know. But I do think it is important that the school does do something to help the enviroment.'
Noanne (16) says: ‘I know we have lots of solar panels. And in the toilets, we have a motion sensor, so we do not waste any energy by have the lights switched on. I cannot really think of any other measures, but there should be more measures in my opinion.'
Mare (14) says: ‘First of all, the school has solar panels, which is good. However, the school wastes energy by having open windows and open doors, while the heaters are on all the time.'
Tygo (13) says: ‘I do not really know about measures the school takes to save energy, but they do use green energy.
So the energy is made sustainably.’
Lynn (13) says: ‘I know that in the winter the windows are mostly closed, and in the summer they are opened a lot.’
Evi (14) says: ‘To be honest I think that the school wastes more energy than it saves energy. For example: In the winter the windows are open, while the heater is on. I know this is because of Covid-19, but I still think they could take better measures. I also know that they have solar panels on the roof of the school. That is of course environmentally friendly. But I still think that we waste quite some energy and that can be changed.'
Gaia (14) says: ‘I think the school is wasting energy by opening the windows(because of Corona of course) when at the same time the heating is on.'
Frederik (14) says: ‘I know that they isolate the walls, which is a good measure. But I do not think thats enough.’
Our conclusion:
Most people know that our school has solar panels and this provides green energy. Also, the lights are not on if not necessary by using sensors. These measures already save quite some energy. But the school could do more about saving energy. Take for example some things that the people said that we interviewed.
One of those things was that the heaters are on while the windows are open. This of course is an unnecessary waste of energy. Maybe they could consider closing more windows and making sure the heater is not too high.
In these pie charts you can see whether they mentioned the following things.
School Policy
Our school does not have a policy that we know of, but if we have to come up with three aspects for saving energy,
we would put the LED lights with motion sensor in, the reused warm radiation and the best settings of the central heatings and ventilations.
The school already has the LED lights with motion sensors and the school already uses the best settings of the central heatings and ventilations, but not reused warm radiation.
Furthermore our school has good isolation, and in some windows there is a heat protecting layer inside and of course we have solar panels.
Most of the students we interviewd knew that the school has measures to save energy, but only half mentioned the solar panels, 10% knew about the motion sensors and mentioned the good isolation.
40% told us that there is a lot of heat loss, especially now since the windows are openend all the time.
Our school does not have a policy that we know of, but if we have to come up with three aspects for saving energy,
we would put the LED lights with motion sensor in, the reused warm radiation and the best settings of the central heatings and ventilations.
The school already has the LED lights with motion sensors and the school already uses the best settings of the central heatings and ventilations, but not reused warm radiation.
Furthermore our school has good isolation, and in some windows there is a heat protecting layer inside and of course we have solar panels.
Most of the students we interviewd knew that the school has measures to save energy, but only half mentioned the solar panels, 10% knew about the motion sensors and mentioned the good isolation.
40% told us that there is a lot of heat loss, especially now since the windows are openend all the time.
Three ways to save energy
LED lights with motion sensors The best ways we think energy can be saved are by using LED lights with motion sensors, reused warm radiation and solar panels. LED lights with motion sensors are sustainable because LED lights are very efficient in saving energy. When the lights have motion sensors, the lights do not stay on when you are not in a certain room. This can save up to 50% of energy use. |
Solar panels
Solar panels are good as well. Energy is made via the sun, so you actually make your own energy. This saves up 20%, it of course depends on how many solar panels you have and how large the building is.
Solar panels are good as well. Energy is made via the sun, so you actually make your own energy. This saves up 20%, it of course depends on how many solar panels you have and how large the building is.
There are also other ways, these for example
Communication
How did we stay in touch?
In this project we had to stay in contact with people from India. We exchanged our phone numbers, so we could stay in touch via WhatsApp. Later we had a videoconference with the students from India. We could ask them questions about the topic, and they gave us an answer. After that we answered the questions they had for us. Some of the questions were hard to hear, but also some answers that they gave to our questions were hard to hear because we had some connection issues. So, later we asked the questions again in the WhatsApp group.
In this project we had to stay in contact with people from India. We exchanged our phone numbers, so we could stay in touch via WhatsApp. Later we had a videoconference with the students from India. We could ask them questions about the topic, and they gave us an answer. After that we answered the questions they had for us. Some of the questions were hard to hear, but also some answers that they gave to our questions were hard to hear because we had some connection issues. So, later we asked the questions again in the WhatsApp group.
How did we prepare for the call?
We did a few things to prepare for the call, first we thought of the questions that we wanted to ask, we brainstormed for a bit and then we wrote some things down. Then we choose the two best ones which were, what does your school do to save energy? And, how efficient are those ways of saving energy? Before we started, we divided the things we wanted to say and made sure everyone knew what to do and what to say.
We did a few things to prepare for the call, first we thought of the questions that we wanted to ask, we brainstormed for a bit and then we wrote some things down. Then we choose the two best ones which were, what does your school do to save energy? And, how efficient are those ways of saving energy? Before we started, we divided the things we wanted to say and made sure everyone knew what to do and what to say.
Our questions to them:
1. What does your school do to save energy?
Their answer: ´Like, in our school there are few students (council members) appointed to check whether all the electric equipment is turned off.
Most parts of the school face the sun and hence there is ample amount of sunlight entering the class, so there are large windows which allow the sunlight to enter which prevents us to turn on the lights unnecessarily. And our classes are well ventilated, so fans are used quite less when it's not a hot day.
Students are forbidden to use elevators; the permission is given in rare cases and we also meet Energy Star standards on electrical appliances.´
2. Are these ways of energy saving at your school efficient?
Their answer: ´Some ways are efficient and others maybe not.´
1. What does your school do to save energy?
Their answer: ´Like, in our school there are few students (council members) appointed to check whether all the electric equipment is turned off.
Most parts of the school face the sun and hence there is ample amount of sunlight entering the class, so there are large windows which allow the sunlight to enter which prevents us to turn on the lights unnecessarily. And our classes are well ventilated, so fans are used quite less when it's not a hot day.
Students are forbidden to use elevators; the permission is given in rare cases and we also meet Energy Star standards on electrical appliances.´
2. Are these ways of energy saving at your school efficient?
Their answer: ´Some ways are efficient and others maybe not.´
Their questions to us:
1. Does closing unused rooms help energy saving?
Our answer: We think it will work but it differs from the temperature. If it is cold in that room and you close it, it will be efficient because the cold air cannot escape the room and make the other area's colder.
2. What does your school do about energy saving?
Our answer: Our school has solar panels.
1. Does closing unused rooms help energy saving?
Our answer: We think it will work but it differs from the temperature. If it is cold in that room and you close it, it will be efficient because the cold air cannot escape the room and make the other area's colder.
2. What does your school do about energy saving?
Our answer: Our school has solar panels.
What have we learned about how energy can be saved at school in the most effective ways (compared to India)?
We learned that in India the schools are strict in turning off the lights when they are not used. They even have some council member who have a task to turn off electric devices when they are not used. Perhaps our school could do this too. In India they have large windows, so there is a lot of sunlight. This prevents them from losing energy on the lights. I think this is an example for our school, since we always close the blinds etc. If we would open them more often, maybe we would not have to turn on the lights. They also have good ventilation, so the vans are not used too much.
We learned that in India the schools are strict in turning off the lights when they are not used. They even have some council member who have a task to turn off electric devices when they are not used. Perhaps our school could do this too. In India they have large windows, so there is a lot of sunlight. This prevents them from losing energy on the lights. I think this is an example for our school, since we always close the blinds etc. If we would open them more often, maybe we would not have to turn on the lights. They also have good ventilation, so the vans are not used too much.
Comparison & Reflection
Their research results.
The people from India had also interviewed 10 people. The answers that the people gave them were more extensive. We kept it to the 200 words that we needed to use for all interviews. They used around 200 words per interview with the people. They only conducted the interviews with the students, we could not see anything about the person who is responsible for energy saving at their school. We also could not see the interview with a company. We learned that in India the schools are strict in turning off the lights when they are not used. They even have a council member who has a task to turn off electric devices when they are not used. Perhaps our school could do this too. In India they have large windows, so there is a lot of sunlight. This prevents them from losing energy on the lights. I think this is an example for our school, since we always close the blinds etc. If we would open them more often, maybe we would not have to turn on the lights. They also have good ventilation, so the vans are not used too much.
Reflection of Escha Zuidweg.
During this project, things went well but there were also some things that need improvement. The communication between the team members in our group went well. We divided the tasks like this: Noes and Mirte conducted the interviews of the 10 students, and they made a report out of it. And Jesper and I conducted the interview with Mr Israël who is responsible for saving energy at school, I wrote down the answers of the interview. Jesper had conducted another interview with Delta, and he wrote the outcome of that down. I made the research part b. With the comparison part we divided the tasks more equally among each other. I think that Jesper and I have done the most in this project, so we could have divided the tasks better. Also, the contact with India could have been better. We texted them very late if they could answer a question again, because we did not hear their answer during the meet due to connection problems. I think that was a pity. I think that the way we planned was well done. I did not have any stress, because we finished everything in time. Only we did not really plan that well when we asked the people from India about their answer. So, next time I would communicate better with the people from India.
Reflection of Jesper Hamoen
I made the video of the introduction together with Escha and wrote some parts of the research and I put it all on the site of course. I worked mostly on the site, but also on writing the text of the information I after put on the site. I think it was a nice project. In the beginning I thought it was going to be difficult, but the people we wanted to interview were willing to do all the interviews we needed. And also the company I contacted gave me a lot of information. But I do have some complains about Weebly, there are not a lot of possibilities. But on the other hand, Weebly is very user friendly. Another thing what was a little less about this project was the communication between us and the students of India. This was due to the WiFi-connection, but it was still annoying. But to solve this we texted them and still got the answers we needed and so did they luckily. Overall, in this project I still learned a lot, I learned how we save energy and how Delta saves it and how energy can be saved in the most effective way. So if I ever buy a house, I know how to make it energy neutral.
Reflection of Noes Goudzwaard
I think in general that the project went well. Everybody worked hard and did their part seriously. There were really no issues. Mirte and I worked on our own part while Escha and Jesper did theirs. We did however have some difficulties with communicating with India. When it was our turn to ask the pupils some questions, we kind of lost connection. Luckily, we could fix this by using WhatsApp. The people from India responded fast to our questions, so communication went well in the end. If there’s something I could do over, it would be about the division of the tasks. Maybe we should’ve been a bit more specific, so in that way we could’ve made the tasks for everyone a bit more equal. And that would be nice for everyone. I think despites this, we really had great teamwork. Maybe we also could’ve communicated with the people from India a bit sooner, but once again it didn’t cause any problems for us. A good thing we did could also be that we kind of looked at what we liked to do while dividing the tasks, so everyone would be happy. I think for this project there are only small things that we could change, but overall, it all went well.
Reflection Mirte Dieleman
I think this project went pretty good overall. We had a nice group, and all did what we had to do. When we started dividing the tasks, Escha and Jesper took the leadership. Everyone was okay with this and we started dividing the tasks. For the introduction, there isn't much to say about that, we all recorded our video, then we looked who was going to edit it, in the end Jesper did it which everyone was fine with, but we probably could have divided that better, since he was not the only participant for doing the editing work. For part 2, Noes and I worked on the interviews with the students and Jesper and Escha worked on the interview with the people that are responsible for energy at school. When it came to part 3, The task division was not that good, since Jesper and Escha were still in this kind of 'leadership' and they divided the tasks before too, I asked them what they wanted me to do. Escha replied to me saying that I could do the part about the preparation. This was not much, and I could have done more. But before I knew it the assignment was already done. I probably could've asked to do more sooner here. So, in my opinion the project went well.
Their research results.
The people from India had also interviewed 10 people. The answers that the people gave them were more extensive. We kept it to the 200 words that we needed to use for all interviews. They used around 200 words per interview with the people. They only conducted the interviews with the students, we could not see anything about the person who is responsible for energy saving at their school. We also could not see the interview with a company. We learned that in India the schools are strict in turning off the lights when they are not used. They even have a council member who has a task to turn off electric devices when they are not used. Perhaps our school could do this too. In India they have large windows, so there is a lot of sunlight. This prevents them from losing energy on the lights. I think this is an example for our school, since we always close the blinds etc. If we would open them more often, maybe we would not have to turn on the lights. They also have good ventilation, so the vans are not used too much.
Reflection of Escha Zuidweg.
During this project, things went well but there were also some things that need improvement. The communication between the team members in our group went well. We divided the tasks like this: Noes and Mirte conducted the interviews of the 10 students, and they made a report out of it. And Jesper and I conducted the interview with Mr Israël who is responsible for saving energy at school, I wrote down the answers of the interview. Jesper had conducted another interview with Delta, and he wrote the outcome of that down. I made the research part b. With the comparison part we divided the tasks more equally among each other. I think that Jesper and I have done the most in this project, so we could have divided the tasks better. Also, the contact with India could have been better. We texted them very late if they could answer a question again, because we did not hear their answer during the meet due to connection problems. I think that was a pity. I think that the way we planned was well done. I did not have any stress, because we finished everything in time. Only we did not really plan that well when we asked the people from India about their answer. So, next time I would communicate better with the people from India.
Reflection of Jesper Hamoen
I made the video of the introduction together with Escha and wrote some parts of the research and I put it all on the site of course. I worked mostly on the site, but also on writing the text of the information I after put on the site. I think it was a nice project. In the beginning I thought it was going to be difficult, but the people we wanted to interview were willing to do all the interviews we needed. And also the company I contacted gave me a lot of information. But I do have some complains about Weebly, there are not a lot of possibilities. But on the other hand, Weebly is very user friendly. Another thing what was a little less about this project was the communication between us and the students of India. This was due to the WiFi-connection, but it was still annoying. But to solve this we texted them and still got the answers we needed and so did they luckily. Overall, in this project I still learned a lot, I learned how we save energy and how Delta saves it and how energy can be saved in the most effective way. So if I ever buy a house, I know how to make it energy neutral.
Reflection of Noes Goudzwaard
I think in general that the project went well. Everybody worked hard and did their part seriously. There were really no issues. Mirte and I worked on our own part while Escha and Jesper did theirs. We did however have some difficulties with communicating with India. When it was our turn to ask the pupils some questions, we kind of lost connection. Luckily, we could fix this by using WhatsApp. The people from India responded fast to our questions, so communication went well in the end. If there’s something I could do over, it would be about the division of the tasks. Maybe we should’ve been a bit more specific, so in that way we could’ve made the tasks for everyone a bit more equal. And that would be nice for everyone. I think despites this, we really had great teamwork. Maybe we also could’ve communicated with the people from India a bit sooner, but once again it didn’t cause any problems for us. A good thing we did could also be that we kind of looked at what we liked to do while dividing the tasks, so everyone would be happy. I think for this project there are only small things that we could change, but overall, it all went well.
Reflection Mirte Dieleman
I think this project went pretty good overall. We had a nice group, and all did what we had to do. When we started dividing the tasks, Escha and Jesper took the leadership. Everyone was okay with this and we started dividing the tasks. For the introduction, there isn't much to say about that, we all recorded our video, then we looked who was going to edit it, in the end Jesper did it which everyone was fine with, but we probably could have divided that better, since he was not the only participant for doing the editing work. For part 2, Noes and I worked on the interviews with the students and Jesper and Escha worked on the interview with the people that are responsible for energy at school. When it came to part 3, The task division was not that good, since Jesper and Escha were still in this kind of 'leadership' and they divided the tasks before too, I asked them what they wanted me to do. Escha replied to me saying that I could do the part about the preparation. This was not much, and I could have done more. But before I knew it the assignment was already done. I probably could've asked to do more sooner here. So, in my opinion the project went well.
Self-Evaluation