The Issue

There are nearly 100,000 public K-12 schools across the country, representing about 5% of commercial building energy consumption. These schools spend over $8 billion annually on energy, more than computers and textbooks combined. Unfortunately, it’s estimated that nearly 30% of this spend goes to waste due to operational inefficiencies
and outdated infrastructure.

Realizing the need to increase their own efficiency, a school district with over 4,000 students reached out to Burton to better understand their utility spend and what opportunities existed to increase efficiency across their 12 schools and support facilities.

The Burton Solution

Over the course of a week, Burton dedicated two experienced energy and water efficiency engineers to walk every building and perform an energy and water audit. An energy audit is a comprehensive analysis of a facility’s energy usage and expense to determine where, when, and how energy is being used. This provides insights into current energy costs and identifies measures that reduce energy usage and carbon intensity, increase energy savings, and promote environmental responsibility.

The greatest energy end users in schools are HVAC (heating and cooling), lighting, and water heating. During the assessment, these major areas were evaluated along with all other areas of energy use. Opportunities related to LED upgrades, HVAC retro-commissioning, controls, variable frequency drives, chiller replacement, EC motors, occupancy sensors, and other areas were evaluated. A financial analysis was then performed to determine the financial impact of each measure.

Creating an effective utility management strategy is not complete without incorporating water efficiency. Historically, water wasn’t typically focused on as the expense wasn’t impactful to the overall utility budget, however with water and sewer rates increasing 50% over the past decade, this was also included in scope. The water audit consisted of evaluating all end uses including kitchen equipment, swimming pools, irrigation, cooling towers, plumbing fixtures, and other water using equipment.

Upon completion of the energy and water assessment, Burton was able to identify over $520,000 in annual utility expense savings. This equated to a 37% reduction in electric, 22% reduction in natural gas, and a 21% reduction in water use. The table below summarizes the savings by facility.