Mineola School District Goes "Green"

The Mineola Union Free School District has found a new way of saving money: conserving energy.

Through the implementation of a few energy-saving upgrades at each of the schools in the district, architect Saverio Belifiore said the district will save about $415,000 a year. “There’s actually a guaranteed savings over the first two phases of $5.445 million,” over the next 18 years he said at last Thursday's meeting of the board of education at the .

The upgrades were done as part of the comprehensive plan, which is comprised of the building condition survey, an annual visual inspection, and 5 year facilities plan.

As the district enters its second year of an energy performance contract with Johnson Controls, the major areas of improvement are the schools’ boilers, lighting upgrades and controls, energy management and weatherization.

“They’ve been very proactive in implementing this,” Belifiore said, adding that the district is also using organic cleaning supplies, pesticides and herbicides to control weeds and insects.

All of these changes reduce the district’s carbon footprint by cutting down the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the schools.

Boiler plan upgrades were made at , , , , and the , and were one of the biggest and most cost-effective changes, according to Belifiore.

The upgrades improve the efficiency and reduce the actual energy that the boilers emit. Belifiore stated that the boilers alone conserved 2,300 British thermal units (btu) over the past 2 years, and are projected to save the district about $96,000 a year over the next 18 years.

The new boiler system is also equipped with energy management that monitors and controls heat. When the temperature reaches a set point, heat in the buildings will automatically shut off and turn back on when necessary, without causing the boiler to kick on every time.

This “really where (the district’s) main draw of energy is,” Belifiore said, adding that the new system has already saved 9,400 gallons of oil, or $21,000, a year.

A similar energy management system has been put in place with the lighting in the schools. Lamps were replaced with new high-efficiency bulbs and light sensors allow fixtured to automatically shut off when a room is not in use for a certain period of time.

“The smart technology associated with these lights sensors is that they can actually learn from the hours of operation and they’re actually very beneficial in saving energy,” Belifiore said. The energy efficient lights have helped the district save $124,000 a year by conserving 660,000 kilowatt hours, according to Belifiore.

The vending machines and computers in each school also manage energy use by going into “sleep mode” when not in use, which conserves energy but doesn’t fully power down the system. Computers can now be turned off from one central location, rather than relying on individual teachers or students to shut down each one.

To further these savings in coming years, the school district and Johnson Controls are looking into the possible use of solar panels, day and night sensors and light harvesting equipment in the classrooms.