Great carbon and energy management gets people to go from awareness to action.
Eastbourne District Council
Aims
Nick Adlam, Energy Initiatives Officer, wanted to reduce the amount of energy used in council buildings. In particular, getting signficant reductions with photocopiers and computer terminals.
We produced a presentation for council employees and organised an inter-building competition.
Surprise success
The programme had a stunning effect in one of the council leisure centres. Leisure centre staff had been aware of energy efficiency opportunities but had never implemented them.
The presentation and competition got them so enthusiastic that they immediately reduced their energy use by 45%.
Strategy development
The programme highlighted the fact that council-run theatres’ energy use exploded during periods when a show was running. Although this was an obvious fact, the programme highlighted the need to have a unique policy to achieve reductions in these buildings.
Results
The results are outlined below. If you would like to discuss these results in more detail, please feel free to get in touch.
EBC Annual Energy Bill:
£310,000
Staff Attendance:
25%
Immediate Reductions In Main Buildings:
45%
25%
20%
16%
Average Reduction In Participating Buildings:
10%
Exact Value Of Energy Reduction*:
£4,392 pa
Predicted Value Of Energy Reduction With Full Participation**
£31,000 pa
* Exact value of energy reduction
Actual energy reduction over 24-hour challenge:
212 units/kwh
Cost of energy reduction (at £0.08 pence per kwh***):
£16.96
Actual reduction of CO2 tonnes over 24-hour challenge:
111.724 kg
CRC value of reduction (@ £12 per CO2 tonne) 111.724 kg:
£1.34
Total value of reduction over 24-hour challenge:
£18.30
Eastbourne savings extrapolated
Total value of 24-hour saving:
£18.30 per day
x 5 working days per week
x 48 working weeks per year
Total vaue of annual saving:
£4392 per year
** Predicted energy reduction with full participation
The buildings which had signifcant attendance achieved an average reduction of 10%.
10% of the EBC annual energy bill is £31K
***The CO2 emission factor used is 0.527 kg / kWh [Defra, 14].
This includes an allowance for the 7.5% of losses on the national grid [Defra, 14] and some other inefficiencies that occur before electricity reaches the end user.
Other calculators that use a smaller value (e.g. 0.43 kg / kWh [2] [5] [6]) appear not to allow for grid losses.
