ENERGY SQUAD

Students at Bayou Lacombe Middle School are using their bright minds to lead the way to saving energy. They act as “energy patrols” investigating and reporting on energy use in the school building. It's a fun way to get students and staff engaged in forming positive energy saving habits!

Things YOU Can Do To Save Energy

Lighting

Issue/Problem: By using energy more efficiently at school and home, you can lower your energy bills by more than 30%.  This involves how we use and choose: lights, heating and cooling, appliances, and water.

Lighting accounts for 15% of all energy used in homes, much of which is unnecessary.

These are some of the easiest changes you can make.

1.  Turn off the lights when you leave a room.

A no-brainer. Simply don't leave a room without flicking the switch off. It's just the right thing to do and couldn't be easier. Teach this to everyone in your school and at home and make it a household rule.

2. Don't turn the lights on and work by natural light.

When possible, don't even turn the lights on. Work by daylight or sunlight.

3. Install automatic timers and dimmers on your lights.

Automatic timers are quite inexpensive and very easy to operate. They are purely mechanical and require no special electrical wiring.

Dimmers reduce the amount of electricity used and are also quite inexpensive and simple to operate.

4. Replace regular incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL's)

These more efficient bulbs will fit into most school and household fixtures and give the same steady light as your incandescents. CFL's are more expensive than the old light bulbs, but you'll save money over time because they use only 25-33% of the energy used by regular bulbs and last 10 times as long (average life of CFL is 8 years). Remarkably, each CFL keeps half a ton of carbon dioxide out of the air over its lifetime.

CFL's are only used by 6% of consumers today!!!

*The St. Tammany Parish Public School System would like to acknowledge the Allen-Stevenson School Committee on the Environment (COTE) and the Natural Resources Defense Council for these energy saving tips.