Oprah Winfrey was the unlikely inspiration for Judy Winship’s 10th grade class at Upper Dublin High School. A couple of the students saw an Oprah show on energy efficiency which motivated students to choose to focus on energy efficiency for their project.
The class decided to investigate the energy efficiency of their school. Initially, they did research in the library and invited Ron Contrisciane, a sales representative from Honeywell Inc., to speak with them. At Mr. Contrisiciane’s suggestion, the class broke down into five groups with each one looking at a different aspect of the question. Shane led the lighting systems group and Kyle the heating ventilation and air-conditioning group. Beth headed the meters reading group and Jill the public service and water group. The fifth group, led by James, audited the building’s envelope, its windows and doors.
Sharing their results, the class realized there are varying energy efficiencies within the same building. For instance, many areas of the building use efficient fluorescent lights with reflectors but the east side of the building does not have the benefit of much natural light. John pointed out that when the building gets uncomfortably hot in the winter, it’s harder to work and class members rattled off other consequences of energy inefficiencies including increased costs and increased pollution from excessive energy use.
Jamie chronicled the class’s efforts in photographs so they can be included with the presentation planned for the school administration. Whether their ideas can be acted on in their present 50 year-old building, or perhaps be considered for the new building is construction, they hope to learn more about what a truly “green” building would look like and are working toward that goal.