The Challenge
Money spent on facilities and overhead can't be spent on students, so Fairfield Area School District looks for efficiencies of every kind. Plug loads were one: classroom electronics, break-room and office equipment, vending machines and charging carts drew power around the clock, even in standby, while the district's buildings were occupied only about 35% of the time.
The Solution
The district hired Siemens for a performance contract that, alongside major lighting and chiller upgrades and building-envelope improvements, installed 250 BERT Smart Plugs for plug load control.
Devices are grouped by building (elementary, middle and high school) and by type, such as TVs and projectors, and schedules are applied to each group. Each building has its own schedule to match its hours. Some districts also add summer schedules to keep devices off through the summer break.
The Results
Fairfield reduced its overnight standby plug-load energy cost by 65%, and its devices are now off for more than 5,700 hours a year.
“We’ve taken steps to reduce our heating and cooling costs. Based on the suggestion from Siemens, we’re now able to control our plug loads as well with BERT. We know that cutting power to those devices lowers our electric bill.”