The Client
Whittington Primary School is a larger than average rural school on the outskirts of Whittington Village and two miles from Lichfield City in Staffordshire, catering for pupils aged three to eleven.
The Brief
The school is continually seeking to contain costs and initially met with SaveMoneyCutCarbon to discuss the best ways to achieve energy and other savings that did not seriously affect the tight budgets. The school considered options including a full LED lighting upgrade, heating and insulation.
The school wanted to cut the cost and time involved in replacing and fixing broken lamps and fittings.
The Solution
SaveMoneyCutCarbon carried out a detailed survey to assess what annual savings would be gained by fitting LED lighting in the classrooms and other parts of the school, identifying further savings through heating controls and insulation.
The experienced SaveMoneyCutCarbon team, all fully DBS-checked, handled the seven-day project from start to finish, including survey, specification, installation and testing.
SaveMoneyCutCarbon used its expert knowledge to manage the complex Salix Finance funding application on behalf of the school, securing an interest-free loan to cover project costs, with repayments covered by savings made in electricity bills.
The school was keen to make savings as quickly as possible and the team worked around the school timetable, fitting the LED lighting during the school holidays to avoid any disruption to class activities.
It replaced 464 lights and fittings at the school with quality LED equivalents, including panels, linear battens, lamps, tubes and bulkheads.
LED was chosen as a light source because it offers excellent energy efficiency compared with fluorescent and halogen light. It also delivers 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.
Funding was also secured for insulation to the mobile classroom ceiling and thermostat controls to improve the environment in those rooms.
The school also took advantage of SaveMoneyCutCarbon’s energy brokerage service to find a cheaper supplier and further cut costs.
Summary
- 68.3% reduction lighting costs
- Savings of £3,449.11 per year
- Carbon footprint reduced by 68.3%
- Self-financing payback period: 8 years
- Reduced maintenance costs
Annual Savings
-
£3,449
£ saved
-
68%
tonnes
-
68%
kWh
-
8
years payback