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Hillsborough Schools Given Assignment: Save Energy

Tribune photo by SCOTT ISKOWITZ

A.E. Balthazor, a sixth-grade science teacher at Benito Middle School, teaches students to monitor and control energy use.

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By MARILYN BROWN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 26, 2007

Updated: 12/25/2007 11:55 pm

TAMPA - With an electric bill expected to top $40 million this year, the Hillsborough County School District has turned to a team of five men and a few posses of students.

A physicist and certified energy manager heads the team. Daniel Cabrera's job is figuring out how to cut the district's soaring usage by 10 percent.

Four paid energy conservation mentors work with him, kind of like detectives.

Periodically, the men go to each school to search for lights burning through the night, empty rooms with the air conditioning blasting and glowing computer monitors. They are also helping organize energy action patrols at schools.

A small cadre of students was recruited to help. The student patrol program started late last school year at several schools, with children reading meters, making an inventory of light bulbs and coordinating recycling.

At Benito Middle School in New Tampa, sixth-grade science teacher A.E. Balthazor, who is dedicated to teaching about energy conservation, has been the driving force. She weaves it into her curriculum and spreads it throughout the school via the energy monitors.

Balthazor tapped a few of her students and some in the National Junior Honor Society, which she sponsors. The patrols have discovered lost energy in everything from computer screens left on to vending machines kept running all night and weekends that could be shut off with timers.

"We're here only seven hours a day," said Danny Molino, 14. "In winter, they don't need to be on at all. That's wasting a lot of our energy."

Between 2005-06 and 2006-07, Benito reduced its electrical usage by 14.4 percent, saving 366,831 kilowatt hours, Cabrera said.

"They're eager to implement changes," Cabrera said about schools. "It's always about the budget."

An example is Benito, where a pilot program is planned to replace the school's 4,000 fluorescent light bulbs with lower wattage bulbs that have less mercury and produce less heat, making air conditioning more efficient.

For a $1 million investment, the school should save at least $200,000 a year in utility costs, Cabrera said.

In the meantime, "To have behavior modification and to have the teachers and students turn off the lights is a nice return."

Responsible, enthused patrols are not something that can be mandated, Cabrera said, one reason it may be working.

More Than Recycling

The school district's energy conservation efforts mostly had been limited to recycling bins at some schools and rewards for schools that used less than the assigned annual targets for kilowatt hour usage.

In the summer of 2006, Cabrera answered a Monster .com ad placed by the district for the manager of energy conservation job. By late September he was hired, said Cathy Valdes, the district's chief facilities officer. Four energy conservation mentors were hired to help Cabrera, and their salaries were paid by an average energy savings for their assigned schools. One has left and will be replaced, Valdes said.

The mentors are motivated: "If they don't realize a 10 percent savings, they will not have continued employment," Valdes said.

Hiring Cabrera has given the district "a whole other direction to this job," she said.

Besides the student energy patrols and helping schools cut usage, Cabrera is working with Tampa Electric Co. to quickly identify energy spikes and streamline billing, now numbering 900 separate bills for each district meter.

Cabrera also is working with the district's mechanical engineers to ensure that new equipment standards are followed with new and replacement heating and air conditioning.

That equipment accounts for about 60 percent of the district's energy bill, Cabrera said, and is the reason changing behavior and equipment is key.

Most people think of recycling as the main avenue to greener schools, he said, but it has a small return compared with more efficient buildings, air conditioning and changing behavior.

In the 2005-06 school year, 28 of the district's 200 schools recycled about a million pounds of newspaper, Cabrera said. In 2006-07, that had increased to 70 schools with a 50 percent increase in the amount recycled, he said.

"It is not our focus right now," he said. Recycling companies don't provide all schools with trash bins, he said. Mentors encourage recycling drives but have a broader focus.

"That's our foot in the door," said David Turner, the energy conservation mentor for Plant City and Central Tampa schools. Mentors work with schools that ask for help, letting a school's individual needs guide the teachers and students who voluntarily participate.

Turner has been working with Lomax Elementary Magnet School for math, science and technology in Tampa. He helped Principal Lynn Roberts focus on more efficient lighting, door seals and door sweeps, she said.

An energy patrol of four fifth-grade students arrives at school at 7:45 a.m. to read meters in four buildings and chart results. A monthly report goes to Turner. When spikes in air conditioning use are seen, staff is alerted.

"A lot of teachers had the air conditioning on manual - the units run continuously throughout the day," Roberts said. A student energy scout is being trained in each classroom this school year to make sure the air conditioners are set at an automatic 75 degrees, she said.

Conservation On The Mind

The energy scouts have two other jobs as they leave an empty classroom: make sure lights and computer monitors are switched off.

"One third-grade student is constantly telling her teachers to turn off the lights," Roberts said. "She has taken it upon herself to be a constant reminder."

An after-school program at Lomax for fourth- and fifth-graders teaches about alternative energy with some students doing energy audits at home, she said.

"It's spreading very quickly," Roberts said. "Every time I leave my office, I attempt to turn off the lights as well. I'm trying to model the behavior for my fellow students, staff members."

A large turnover in school custodial and maintenance staff make it impractical to rely on them to monitor utility usage, Cabrera said. His energy conservation monitors are trying to build awareness when a school requests an energy audit.

The big bonus, however, is the ripple effect of the awareness, which students take home with them.

"I never realized how important energy could be," said Carissa Cranmer, an 11-year-old sixth-grader at Benito. "Every time I'm not in a room or don't need them, I turn off lights. My whole entire family now does it."

Her mother, Tamara, said the family is saving at least $40 to $50 a month on the electric bill since her daughter brought the school campaign home.

"We're not using our air conditioner even though some days it gets hot," Tamara Cranmer said. "We've had the windows open probably a month."

That scenario is where Cabrera hopes the district's new program is headed.

"Kids learn this, they bring it home," Cabrera said. With building awareness of energy conservation, "the impact we can have is very, very important."

Ben Judkins, 13, said he talked to his family. Family members cut down and now they're saving about $30 a month.

"You save money for your family so you can do extra stuff," Judkins said.

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.

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