Birmingham school saves £25,000 a year

Archbishop Ilsley Catholic School and Sixth Form Centre is a large and popular secondary school in Acocks Green, Birmingham.

The school business manager met with SaveMoneyCutCarbon to discuss options for energy savings and the most effective ways to fund the project before the move to academy status.

With pressure on budgets, the school wanted to optimise the school internal and exterior lighting as well as reducing costs of replacing and fixing failed lamps.

Carbon emissions reduced by 70.1% per year

Energy savings of £25,285 per year

SaveMoneyCutCarbon conducted a full survey over two days to identify where the best energy savings could be made before preparing a detailed business case that mapped out clearly the products with payback periods and project timelines.

The professional services team also used its expert knowledge to manage the complex Salix Finance funding application for the school, securing an interest-free loan to cover project costs, with repayments covered by savings made in energy bills.

The experienced SaveMoneyCutCarbon team, all fully DBS-checked, handled the complete project, including survey, specification, installation and testing, while ensuring that the work fully complied with emergency lighting requirements and CIBSE lighting guidance for schools.

The school wanted the work completed quickly, before it completed its change to academy status and the team worked closely with school managers to minimise disruption to teaching activities.

The survey identified a total of 2984 light fittings, both interior and outdoors, that should be replaced with quality LED products, including panels, pitch floodlights, external lighting bulkheads, linear battens, lamps and tubes..

LED was the preferred choice as it delivers excellent energy efficiency compared with fluorescent and halogen light. It also ensure high reliability and light quality, lasting for between 40,000 to 50,000 hours of continuous usage, which helps to cut maintenance costs.

The LED lighting retrofit removed fluorescent tubes that generally only last 5,000 hours with the light quality degrading badly well before final failure.

Every light is fully supported with a no-quibble, five-year manufacturers’ warranty.

The survey also identified 30 hand dryers across the school, consuming 1,100W-2300W, which the team replaced with SMCC Eco Dryers, running at just 500W. With energy savings of 56%, these dryers will pay for themselves in just three years.

“This was a big and complex project and needed to be completed as quickly as possible to meet the school’s schedules. Our deep experience of the education sector meant that we could move rapidly to plan and complete the work, delivering excellent, ongoing energy savings. “While taking the pressure off budgets, we also used our extensive knowledge of the Salix process to secure full, interest-free funding. “This is a clear path to reducing operating costs and with budgets under continued pressure, every school can benefit from energy-efficiency projects.”

Emily McDonough, Midlands regional sales manager, SaveMoneyCutCarbon:

“Our energy bills are big and the school is in use out of normal hours as well so we needed to reduce these high costs. SaveMoneyCutCarbon gave us very good information and saving projections which helped us make the decision to go ahead. “They also have a good reputation and great track record in working with schools on lighting projects. Securing Salix funding was also a great help in managing overall expenditure efficiently. “I was really happy with the work of the installation team. They did a very good job, were courteous and tidy, and responded quickly to any issues that are inevitable in such a big project. I’d very happy to recommend them.”

Helen Burrows, head teacher, Archbishop Ilsley School:

Birmingham secondary school saves £25,000 a year with LED lighting

Carbon footprint reduced by over 70%

The Brief

The Solution