Wawasee Assessing Energy Cost Savings

The bottom line is when a school corporation can save on energy costs, it frees up money that can be used elsewhere.

Especially the last few years, budgets for the Wawasee Community School Corp. have either shrunk or shown very little increase. This has created an urgent need to look for ways to reduce energy costs.

The school corporation has already utilized the services of Performance Services of Indianapolis to implement several energy saving measures throughout the corporation – physically and behaviorally — and recently took another step to reduce energy consumption.

Last week, representatives of Energizing Indiana, as well as NIPSCO, toured Wawasee Middle School to do a thorough energy assessment of the entire building. Joining them and all with WCSC were Bob Lahrman, director of support services; Randy Johnson, energy management supervisor; and Brian Taylor, director of facilities and maintenance.

Energizing Indiana is a united effort by the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, participating utilities and consumer organizations to offer comprehensive energy efficiency programs that bring savings to communities statewide. NIPSCO, in partnership with Energizing Indiana, offers a school audit and direct install program.

Schools can submit an application to participate in the program. WMS, originally built in the late 1980s and more than 20 years old, qualified. Last year, after considering having a geothermal system installed at WMS, the school board voted against it.

Doug Munz and Seth Little of Energizing Indiana were assisted by Chris Pieri, school account representative of NIPSCO, for the energy assessment of WMS. For the last several years, many energy saving measures have been implemented at WMS including, among many others, replacing existing hot water heaters with energy efficient ones, installing carbon dioxide sensors in the large areas and replacing most heating coils in existing air handlers.

This summer, an energy management system will be installed to control exhaust fans, motion sensors for hallway lighting will be installed and the air compressor will be removed from the boiler room.

School building energy assessments include, but are not necessarily limited to, the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, lighting, kitchen appliances, insulation levels and other building systems. Munz, Little and Pieri noted they were positively impressed by all the energy saving measures already in place, but typically even more can be done. A detailed report will be submitted to the school corporation within the next couple of weeks.

Part of the school energy savings program includes Energizing Indiana installing energy efficient products to include vending machine controllers, compact fluorescent light bulbs, occupancy sensing power strips, lighting occupancy sensors and LED exit signs. Noting most exit signs are already LED at WMS, Little suggested focusing on the vending machines and occupancy sensors, which was agreed upon. The energy saving products are scheduled to be installed Wednesday, Little added.