This article was published on Wednesday December 28th, 2011 in the Middletown Journal by Eric Robinette, Staff Reporter and features Ohio Schools as well as Innovative Energy Solutions work to make these public facilities more energy efficient and saving thousands in tax dollars.

Savings

While utility bills for homes have been increasing, many area school districts have seen their bills drop thanks to a variety of energy conservation programs.

And thanks to those bills dropping, the districts can put money back into their general fund, creating less drain on taxpayer dollars. And in at least one case, that has enabled a district to delay putting a levy on the ballot.

Middletown City Schools has seen some of the most dramatic decreases. A little more than three years ago, the district contracted with a Hamilton consulting firm called Innovative Energy Solutions. At that time, the district’s gas/electric bill came out to $1.9 million a year. Now it’s down to $1.2 million a year, said Mark Putnam, the president of that company.

Ron Klapper, the district’s manager of operations, estimated that last year alone, the district saved $500,000.

Middletown also has eight new elementary school buildings, and all eight of them received an Energy Star certification from the United States Environmental Protection Agency meaning they’re in the lowest 25 percent of energy usage nationwide,

“That’s pretty darn amazing … for two years we have been certified and have received that (rating). That’s more schools than any district in Ohio ” Putnam said.

These savings are achieved through a combination of newer, more energy-efficient buildings, more comprehensive energy plans and modern technology.

One of the keys to the program is a complex control center, akin to a very elaborate programmable thermostat.

In the control center, each building is divided into specific zones for which temperatures can be controlled individually. These zones can also be put on timers to kick on and off at various times, Putnam said.

With the hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings, the district can generate a positive cash flow and use the extra dollars on preventive maintenance it could not previously afford, he added.

Currently, the control centers are only used in the eight elementary schools. The energy plan will be extended to the middle schools and the high school once officials determine the future use of those buildings, Putnam said.

Hamilton City Schools’ energy situation is comparable to Middletown’s, in that both districts have new buildings that have netted the district considerable savings, said Jim Boerke, Hamilton’s director of planning, operations and construction management.

According to figures provided by Treasurer Robert Hancock, the district’s utility bill dropped from $2.6 million in 2006 to $2.1 million this year.

“Some of the savings may be attributable to price fluctuations for utilities from year to year.  There is no doubt that our buildings are more energy efficient and that efficiency has contributed greatly to our utility costs not increasing as a result of the larger buildings that were necessary as part of the redesign of the school district facilities,” Hancock said.

Like Middletown, Hamilton also has a computerized climate control system, the flexibility of which produces numerous benefits.

“We can control it minute by minute and we can see every box to tweak the temperature in the room,” Boerke said. The control center can lead to significant settings with a simple command. When the district has a snow day, the buildings’ boilers can be shut down, saving 2,000 kilowatts of energy per building. Previously, the boilers would have kept running, Boerke said. In so doing, the district saves $1,000 each snow day.

And those figures can add up as well. The heat in the buildings is typically turned down on Sunday, and doing so puts $70,000 a year in the district’s pocket,” Boerke, said.

Unlike Hamilton, Fairfield doesn’t have numerous new school buildings to contend with — only the high school and East Elementary are recently built structures. Even so, Fairfield City Schools’ utility bill went from $2.2 million four years ago to $1.3 million this year, said the superintendent for business, Chad Lewis.

“We saved $1 million after 32 months. I don’t know any district that can’t afford to save $1 million,” he said.

Although Fairfield also uses modern devices like computer-controlled thermostats, their energy-saving efforts rely less on modern technology and more on changing behaviors.

The district partnered with a group called Energy Education out of Texas, because it didn’t have any capital dollars to make physical facility improvements. So instead, officials were advised to keep temperatures between 68 and 72 degrees in the winter and 72 to 78 degrees in the warmer months. Then, when people aren’t in the buildings, the systems can be programmed to come on rarely, if ever.

“We have big, big savings on unoccupied buildings,” said Lewis.

Even the simple act of turning off computers can save a lot of money. If Fairfield left every computer running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, that would mean an extra $60,000 to $70,000 spent.

Since the district is saving money, however, “it goes back to the general fund and pays for other things,” Lewis said. That’s partly how the district was able to stave off putting a levy on the ballot between 2004 and this year, he added.

Even if districts don’t have a plan in place just yet, there are some in the offing.

Lebanon City Schools aims to reduce costs by replacing older equipment with more efficient equipment and is similar to conservation programs people use in their own homes, according to a mailing recently sent to district residents.

For example, just as a homeowner might replace a wooden, single-pane window with a vinyl double-paned window, Lebanon plans to replace one of its boilers with a more energy-efficient model.

That boiler is in Donovan Elementary School and is as old as the building itself, which dates back to 1994, said Superintendent Mark North.

“Most of that (work) has to be done … the boiler in Donovan was there when the building was built. It’s worn out,” he said.

Over the next 14 years, the district estimates it will save more than $90,000 annually.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or eric.robinette@coxinc.com.