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What if your energy company gave you $68 per student per year in your school district? They might not…

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Up until this past August there has been no mandated utility reporting. If a school system wants to know if they…

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Maintenance and Operations / Energy and Physical Plant

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Energy and Physical Plant
Energy and Physical Plant (EPP) maintains and provides quality service to students, faculty, and staff to enhance learning and teaching in a safe and comfortable environment. EPP maintains the systems that are contained in nearly 28 million square feet of buildings. EPP accomplishes this enormous task with only 60 employees and 33 contractors with almost 60 service or job order contracts. EPP keeps the lights on, the rooms cool in the summer and warm in the winter, the toilets flushing, the elevators running, and the buildings secure and protected from fires.
EPP is comprised of eight elements: Utility Management: Approximately $206 is spent per student per year to provide electricity, gas, and water to each building. EPP is always looking for innovative ways to lower this cost and provide these services more efficiently. Some examples of these innovations are: tracking the trends of building energy usage and adjusting them accordingly and making ice during off peak times to help cool the buildings during the day.
Energy Management: This group maintains the control systems that keep the buildings at a comfortable temperature no matter the outside extremes. They run the mechanical systems at optimal performance while assisting building staff with occupancy scheduling and overrides.
HVAC Shop: This group maintains all of the HVAC systems and equipment, refrigeration and kitchen equipment. These systems comprise of approximately 230 chillers, 400 boilers, and 3000+ air handler units and approximately 1000 cooler, freezers and ice machines. (See below for information about HVAC scheduling.)
Plumbing Shop: This group maintains boilers, gas and oil hot water heaters, and all water piped into the buildings and leaving the buildings. This consist of all water lines feeding water to the buildings and ball fields, rooftop drainage, approximately 600 backflow preventers, sump pumps in mechanical spaces, water heaters, and flush valves. Electrical Shop: This group maintains all the electrical services and equipment that distributes the electricity throughout the buildings. This also includes outside lighting around the exterior of the buildings, many of the parking lots, and sports field lighting.
Communications Shop: This group maintains all intercom systems and MATV systems at every school as well as nearly 215 fire alarm systems and over 60 sprinkler fire protection systems.
Security Shop: This group maintains approximately 200 burglar systems, over 2000 surveillance cameras, over 40 access control systems, and nearly 10,000 Intelli key access users. They also assist staff, security staff, and sometimes local police with burglar events and video retrieval.
Elevator Shop: This group maintains all elevator equipment in the multi-level schools and administrative buildings. It performs all preventative maintenance as well as emergency repairs to nearly 125 elevators and over 50 chairlifts. HVAC scheduling
Monday-Friday school related functions: All after hours (4 p.m.) scheduling should be accomplished through the use of local overrides. This includes but is not limited to teacher workdays, PTA meetings, after hours cleaning, and any activities that extend beyond the normal school day. When possible, teachers should be encouraged to save work for teacher workdays that can be done in the library, teachers’ lounge, or media center instead of their individual classrooms, if only for half a day.
Weekend school related functions: For school-related functions and extended work hours during weekends requiring four hours or less, use local overrides. For more than four hours, fax or send a scheduling form to the Energy Management Department indicating the areas and times needed. Five business days advance notice is required.
Community use of facilities: The Community Services Department facilitates community use of facilities. All rentals and use of facilities by non-school personnel or non-school related organizations are required to schedule their functions through Community Services. They will forward all approved schedules to Energy Management for actual scheduling. All programs in school-owned facilities shall be housed in freestanding multipurpose rooms, mobile classrooms, or gymnasiums whenever possible.
Facilities will not be heated, cooled or lighted (except for security lighting) after regular hours of operation unless advance permission has been granted and Form 2900, “Application for Use of School Facilities,” has been successfully completed and approved.
Holidays, vacation days, snow days: School facilities are placed in an unoccupied mode of operation during holidays vacation and snow days. Exceptions will be year-round schools as necessary, administrative areas (only vacation days) and the scheduled use of building(s) through the community services department. Schools are required to use overrides or send schedules to the energy management department if more than four hours use is needed.
Summer school: All programs held in school-owned facilities shall be housed in freestanding multipurpose rooms, mobile classrooms, or gymnasiums if possible.
General: No central plant HVAC will be provided at any one site for less than 25 people except in extreme circumstances when authorized by the office of energy management, or for the purposes of performing routine cleaning and/or maintenance.
Routine cleaning of facilities should be done in teams, by zones whenever possible. Operation of HVAC equipment is accomplished by use of local overrides. Cleaning crews are discouraged from excessive overriding of energy management systems.

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Students are introduced to passive solar design for buildings — an approach that uses the sun’s energy and the surrounding climate to provide natural heating and cooling. They learn about some of the disadvantages of conventional heating and cooling and how engineers incorporate passive solar designs into our buildings for improved efficiency.

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Want to save money on electricity? First, you need to understand your bill! This helpful guide from Energy.gov breaks down each component of your electricity bill and explains peak vs. off-peak hours. Share this with your students' families to help them start their energy-saving journey.

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Learning to read your utility bills and understand why your utility charges different fees is a crucial step in maximizing a plant’s energy efficiency. Depending on your utility company, your bills can be very long and detailed or quite short, with just a

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After implementing a smart thermostat in my classroom, our energy bills dropped by 15%! These devices learn your schedule and automatically adjust temperatures. The EPA estimates that proper use of a programmable thermostat can save about $180 per year in heating and cooling costs.

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Keep your cooling costs down with these simple tips: Use ceiling fans (counterclockwise in summer), close blinds during peak sun hours, and schedule regular AC maintenance. The Department of Energy estimates these habits can reduce cooling costs by up to 25%!

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In my classroom, we developed a winter conservation checklist: seal drafty windows, reverse ceiling fans (clockwise in winter), and maintain a consistent temperature. These simple steps helped us reduce our heating costs significantly while keeping everyone comfortable.

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Tips for saving energy and money during the fall and winter.

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Looking to replace old appliances? Use this fantastic calculator from Energy Star to estimate your potential savings. We used this tool in our math class to calculate real-world savings - it's a great way to combine practical life skills with mathematics!

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The average household spends more than $2,200 a year on energy bills, with nearly half going to heating and cooling. HVAC equipment that earns the ENERGY STAR label is independently certified to save energy, save money and help protect the climate.

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Try these user-friendly apps to conduct your own home energy audit. My students loved using these tools for their science projects, and many families reported finding easy ways to reduce their energy consumption after using them.

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Did you know that electronics continue to draw power even when turned off? This 'phantom load' can account for up to 10% of your electricity bill! Teach your students about using power strips and unplugging devices when not in use. We made it a classroom job to check all outlets before leaving!

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Making the switch to LED bulbs in my classroom was a game-changer! While they cost more upfront, LEDs use 75% less energy and last 25 times longer than traditional incandescent bulbs. Check out this Energy Star guide on choosing the right LED bulbs.

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Climate Change & Clean Energy: Plans & Progress | NC DEQ

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In Executive Order 80: North Carolina’s Commitment to Address Climate Change and Transition to a Clean Energy Economy, Governor Roy Cooper laid out a series of goals for the state to strive to accomplish by 2025: