RE Project

[northern installer]

majority of schools I have worked in are very poorly designed from an energy point of view,and there never seems to be money available to improve things substantially;its even worse now the schools have control of their own budget.As a country ,we seem to be falling a long way short of the 'joined up thinking ' required to operate public buildings efficiently.   So its good to see at least some effort is being made here;more power to your elbow pogster

[marktime]

Even wind turbines cannot be considered entirely risk free. Did one not recently collapse at a school or was it felled by vandals?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7150000/newsid_7152900/7152907.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm&news=1&bbcws=1


MT

[martin]

I'd take David's idea a step further......
If there's room, build something like a renewably-powered straw-bale classroom, with working examples of as many RE technologies as possible "making it work" - then it would be a REAL teaching asset for the kids, staff and parents, and perhaps even those at county and national level..........

[dhaslam]

It would be good for the school if the project were unique.   The specially designed  building or the seasonal heat store  are projects which are sufficiently different to attract outside attention.  A combination of both perhaps?

[billi]

Hello

depending on the location and the green area around the school.........

An ideal place for the sunmaschine http://www.sunmachine.com/english/prod_pellets.htm ( a woodpellet burner with an stirling engine =chp unit)
And a waste water treatment plant with willows -to harvest -and produce pellets  with the kids

So provide (part or all ?) heating ,hot water , electricity with an intresting technology and in-cooperate the recycling and producing ....

Sure more wood pellets are needed but ...

Billi

[wookey]

A school would be well-suited to the 'under tarmac' heat collector and storage scheme that has been mentioned here. However that is an expensive project that only makes sense when building/resurfacing, I guess (I assume the playground/car park doesn't need rebuilding/extending right now?).

I'd second the suggestion that installing a range of examples would be best educationally, with plenty of instrumentation so it can be monitored/displayed. Some solar thermal (I have no idea how much hot water schools use - possibly not much?), some grid-tied PV, and a small turbine. That's plenty for a budget of 15 grand or so (maybe too much?). Building a whole new classroom would be a rather larger-budget excercise.

A school's electricity use should fit well with PV panel supply times (much better than most houses).