Sustainability

Challenge 2: The Sustainable School - Activity Sheets

Your Task

Your task today is to work in a small team to examine the energy use in your classroom, decide how energy could best be used and then to use this information to enter the competition to design your own sustainable classroom.

1. The Energetic Classroom

Take a look around your classroom and try to identify all the things in the classroom that use energy and then try to identify what type of energy it is and where it comes from.

Use table 1 on the next page to record your ideas. An example has been filled in to show you how it works.

2. Use It, Don’t Lose It

Now you’ve identified the different types of energy being used in your classroom and where they come from it’s time to think about the energy that is being wasted.

As an example, think about how nice and warm your classroom is in winter. Some of the thermal energy being given off by the radiators in your classroom will be keeping you at just the right temperature but some of it will be escaping by conduction through badly insulated walls and roof spaces. Some will also be lost through windows, doors left open and ventilation systems.

Now use table 2 to fill in your ideas about where energy is being wasted in your classroom.

Energy user	What type of energy does it use?	Where does the energy come from?	Is this energy from a renewable (R) or non-renewable (N-R) resource
Hot water*	Thermal energy	The thermal energy is produced by the school’s boiler which burns oil	R or N-R
Light			R or N-R
Computer			R or N-R
Interactive Whiteboard			R or N-R
			R or N-R
			R or N-R
			R or N-R
			R or N-R
			R or N-R
			R or N-R

Table 1 – The Energetic Classroom

* You may have to redo this one if your school produces its hot water in a different way.

Type of Energy	What should this energy be used for?	How is it being wasted?	How might you stop or reduce this wastage?
Electricity*	Running a PC	PC is left on standby when not in use so energy is lost as heat and also in running the fan etc.	Switch PCs off when not in use.
	Lights
	Heating
	Interactive Whiteboards

Table 2 – Use It Don’t Lose It

*There will probably be quite a few entries for electricity as it is used to power a wide range of devices.

3. The Sustainable Classroom

You now have an idea about the variety of different energy types used in your classroom and how some of that energy might be lost instead of doing useful work. But the question is: could you do better?

Your task now is to design an energy efficient sustainable classroom. There will be certain rules to the task and your teacher will let you know what they are. Write the rules in the box below.

Here are some pointers to help you design your classroom:

In a typical building occupied by people some 50 to 60% of energy use is for space heating, 20 to 30% is for water heating and 10 to 15% is for lighting and electrical appliances.
In a typical, minimally insulated, 2 storey detached building 35% of heat loss is through the walls, 25% through the roof and 10% through the windows. The remaining 15% is through doors being opened and closed to allow people in and out.
Heat loss is the greatest energy waster so think about the different ways in which heat is transferred and how unwanted heat transfer might be reduced.

And remember saving energy is all about:

reducing the amount of energy we use
using the energy we do need more efficiently
using more renewable resources to produce our energy.