It costs nothing to switch off. But because many things that use energy are silent and unobtrusive its can be hard to remember to switch them off when they are not needed. And sometimes people falsely believe that things like fluorescent lights shouldn’t be switched off because they use a lot of energy to start up again. Behavioural change can be a challenge to achieve.

We recommend that school energy managers use the following process to achieve ongoing and sustained energy savings by encouraging everyone in the school to develop long-lasting better switch off habits:

1 Identify how much is being wasted – look at your bills

2 Set a target

3 Provide motivators

4 Launch the program

5 Develop / adapt checklists and labels

6 Have a shut-down verification week

7 Review bills to see how much has been saved.

8 Move onto the next step in the program

People will generally do something if its easy to do. Better results usually come when people commit to do just one small thing to start with. Then when they are asked to make a commitment that might require a bit more effort they are more likely to do so. Make the program easy, especially at the start.

1 Identify how much is being wasted.

A simple way of identifying electricity wastage is to examine off-peak energy use. Off peak hours are usually from 11pm to 7 am Monday to Friday, and on weekends. Usually schools are not occupied during these hours, so a school’s off-peak electricity use is a good indicator of how good its night time switch off practices are. And if a school is good at night time switch off, the chances are its good at switching off at other times – for example at the end of class.

Most schools will show both off-peak and peak electricity use. Look at your latest electricity bill, then use the tables overleaf to see how much energy you use during off-peak hours. Considering that no one is usually at the school during this time how much do you think this be reduced by?

Look at OFFPEAK use on your MONTHLY electricity bill

Table 3 - Calculate the environmental cost of off-peak energy use based on MONTHLY bills

Look at OFFPEAK use on your QUARTERLY electricity bill

Table 4 - Calculate the environmental cost of off-peak energy use based on QUARTERLY bills

Security lights ⁹ , alarm systems, fire systems, exit signs, fax machines and computer servers normally can’t be switched off, neither can fridges with perishables in them, and electric hot water services may be set to run during off-peak hours to reduce their running costs. A school of around 300 to 400 students is doing well if its monthly off-peak use is around 1,000 kWh, or its quarterly off-peak use less than 3,000 kWh.

How does your school compare?

⁹ Some studies have indicated that some public spaces can be safer at night if they are not illuminated. Consider investigating time controls that turn your security lighting off at say 11pm.