An Uttoxeter school is celebrating a successful reduction in its carbon footprint potentially saving it thousands of pounds.
Thomas Alleyne’s High School, in Dove Bank, has become a case study on the Carbon Trust website after successfully implementing ways of reducing energy like replacing the old windows by double glazing windows.
The school’s site manager Ian Mirams first contacted the trust in 2007 for a free carbon survey after deciding Thomas Alleyne’s should be making energy efficiency a greater priority.
Mr Mirams said: “The Carbon Trust looked at the school in general, gave us an overview of our energy use and highlighted specific places where it could be improved.”
“The recommendations were mostly common sense, but it got us thinking about some areas we hadn’t considered and having a view of the short pay back periods on improvements gave us the nudge we needed to get started. The first decision that we took following these recommendations was to replace the old windows with new double glazing windows.” The school has already put 60 per cent of the Carbon Trust’s suggestions into action with the largest saving coming from a cover being installed over the swimming pool, which should save nearly £4,000 a year.
What’s more, the school’s insulation has been drastically improved when all the old windows were replaced by double glazing. Not only was the school more soundproof, it was also warmer.
This was provided by Staffordshire County Council’s energy management department and should deliver annual savings of £3,900.
Elsewhere in the school, the 75-85 watt fluorescent lights were being upgraded with more energy efficient replacements, which run at 35-45 watts, providing the same levels of lighting.
The existing hot air convector heating was also being swapped for radiators powered by condensing boilers.
New controls mean that 95 per cent of Thomas Alleyne’s 600 computers can be switched to standby by remote control access.
Mr Mirams said: “The headteacher, senior team and school governors have been really supportive of everything we want to do.
“I’ve taken to shocking the rest of the staff by telling them how much our electricity bill is — we’re getting more and more people on side and in a short time we’ve achieved a lot.
“The Carbon Trust has helped us to see the big overall vision.
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