Hampstead Parochial CofE Primary School

Reducing Heating and Lighting

BACKGROUND
Hampstead Parochial Church of England Primary
School provides education for approximately 204
children between the ages of 3 to 11 years.

The school
volunteered to be
part of the pilot
Collaborative Low
Carbon School
Service in
partnership with
The Carbon Trust as
they recognised they have very high energy bills
and they wanted to become more energy
efficient and improve the awareness of the
environment in the whole school community.

Hampstead Parochial is a listed building and split
over many buildings which age from the 19
th

century with multiple entrances, high ceilings and
large single glazed stone mullion windows.

The school consumes approximately 78,000
kW/h electricity annually at a cost of 7,500. The
CO
2
emissions from this energy use equates to
42 tonnes. Annually 300,000 kW/h of gas is used
at a cost of 8,300. The CO
2
emissions from this
energy use equates to 55 tonnes.

CASE STUDY METHOD
The school followed a basic five step approach.

STEP 1 The school formed an action team and
signed up to the Eco Schools Award scheme.
Staff in the action team involved the Head,
Business Manager, Teaching Assistant, the site
manager and the school Eco Committee.

STEP 2 The action team
carried out an energy
survey to get an
understanding of how
the school is heated, the
hot water systems,
where possible leaks of
heating were, potential
lights which could be
turned off during school operating hours. The
school produced an action plan and started
taking regular meter readings during the week to
monitor energy use.

STEP 3 The action team took action; removed
all hooks and moved plant pots holding external
and internal doors open, changed the heating
times, improved the air tightness of the inclusion
room, placed thermostats in all classrooms,
turned off the hot
water over the
weekends, and
labelled light
switches using red,
amber, green traffic
light coding.

STEP 4 The action team communicated their
work with the wider community through whole
school assemblies and shared their success with
their Parent Teacher Association, and presented
their work to other schools at the Camden School
Green Summit.

STEP 5 Hampstead Parochial
celebrated their success and
were awarded Bronze Eco
Schools Award during the
project. The action team
continues to record and
monitor the monthly fuel
consumption.

SAVINGS
By following the light labelling action and
analysing meter readings, using The Carbon
Trust calculations it is estimated over the year
the school will save approximately 900 off their
electricity bill and 5.5 tonnes of CO
2
,
approximately 12% of their annual energy bill.

By improving the heating in the school and
monitoring the temperature in the classrooms
and using The Carbon Trust calculations
estimated over the year the school will save
approximately 760 off their gas bill and 5.1
tonnes of CO
2
, approximately 9% of their annual
gas bill.