How can schools reduce energy consumption in classrooms?

Are you looking at your school budget and wondering where the money goes? Check your energy bills. They are likely one of your largest non-staff costs - but they are not outside your control.

Vertis is committed to helping schools become more sustainable. Here, we’ll show you how to:

• Save money by cutting your energy use, year in, year out
• Help combat climate change by shrinking your school’s carbon footprint
• Use smart design and technology to improve air quality in your classrooms
• Create a classroom environment that’s better for learning
• Improve the wellbeing of teachers and pupils.

It’s always worth looking for funding to help you improve the energy efficiency of your buildings. For instance, the government recently allocated more than £630 million to help public organisations pay for things like heat pumps, solar panels, insulation and double glazing. This follows a project that put solar panels on around 200 schools, enabling them to reinvest savings on energy bills in teaching.

Understanding these factors will help you reduce energy consumption in the classroom.

Building condition

• It’s not just about age: look at construction, materials, insulation and maintenance
• Check for roof insulation and gaps around windows and doors that let in drafts
• An efficient, well-maintained modern boiler can cut heating costs by up to 30%
• Insulate hot water pipes too
• Use a timer to heat water only when needed (you don’t need hot water 24/7).

Specific school needs

Energy use varies by whether you provide primary, secondary or special education. Different children need different levels of heating and lighting:

• Around 18°C is ideal for places with normal activity (classrooms and offices)
• Up to 21°C for areas with low activity (libraries or rest areas)
• As low as 15°C is fine for high-activity areas (corridors and gyms)
• Rooms that are too hot (over 23°C) or too cold (below 15°C) can impair concentration.

Your users

How staff and pupils use facilities and equipment is a major factor in energy consumption:

• Simply encouraging them to use existing heating or lighting controls effectively can reduce energy use by up to 40%
• Reducing building temperatures by just 1°C can cut 5% to 10% off heating bills
• Running heating for an hour less each day can save a similar amount
• You can normally turn heating off before closing as latent heat will keep rooms warm.

Technology

• The efficiency of your equipment will significantly affect your overall energy usage
• Check the setting on all your heating, lighting, catering, and ICT units
• Replace traditional lights with full-spectrum LED lighting and use timers where possible.

Building design

Well-designed classrooms:

• Maximise natural light for most of the school year, reducing the need for artificial light

• Use blinds to reduce solar glare on sunny days, increasingly important as more schools use screens and tablets
• Filter sunlight through blinds to enable comfortable reading without artificial light
• Use blinds to reduce heat gain on hot days, so cutting energy costs for air conditioning.

We are passionate about sustainability from design and construction to long-term use. Every classroom we build scores A on its Energy Performance Certificate because they are weathertight all year. This means they are more energy efficient and sustainable than traditional classrooms.

Our starting point is to follow ‘Fabric First’ principles. This means using high-performance building fabrics, made from sustainable materials where possible, to deliver thermal integrity cost effectively. As a result, our classrooms exceed building regulations for thermal insulation and airtightness, so you need less energy to heat and cool them.

All our classroom modules come with:

• Exterior cladding made from sustainably sourced timber
• Roofing membrane with a 50-year life expectancy
• Well-insulated windows and doors to prevent energy leakage
• Structurally Insulated Panel System (SIPS) for superior thermal performance
• LED lighting as standard to cut electricity use
• Light coloured internal finishes that reflect daylight and reduce the need for artificial lighting
• Large windows with industry-leading glazing to maximise natural light and improve concentration.

These features offer schools immediate energy savings and lower ongoing maintenance costs. They also make our school buildings a pleasure to teach and learn in, reducing stress for teachers and pupils.

Creating classroom environments that are better for learning

A well-ventilated, comfortable room is vital for concentration and wellbeing. That’s why many of our classrooms have energy-efficient Passivent mixed-mode hybrid ventilation systems in their ceilings. Passivent systems:

• Extract stale air and replaces it with fresh air, which is good for our health
• Increase oxygen levels and reduces CO₂, so pupils stay alert for longer.

Combined with air-conditioning units and air-to-air heat pumps, they deliver full climate control without unpleasant drafts. This keeps rooms at comfortable temperatures in winter and summer.

We can also install modern automated lighting systems (daylight harvesting) with sensors that:

• Monitor and optimise lighting conditions
• Detect when no one is in the room and turn lights off after a set time
• Dim or switch off lights in naturally well-lit areas, such as near windows.

These systems offer schools a simple way to save energy. They also save teachers the hassle of constantly adjusting the controls.

Vertis wants the best for schools

We want schools to have complete confidence in the materials and products we use.

By choosing Vertis, schools benefit from:

• Modular designs that facilitate flexible workspaces
• Quick installation, reducing disruption to school life
• Consistently high thermal performance and airtightness
• A smaller carbon footprint, from construction to operation
• Lower running costs from day one.

Find out how Vertis school buildings help you to save energy in your school while improving teaching and learning conditions. Please contact us today for a FREE, no obligation consultation.