Student worksheet

School Energy Audit Workbook - Starting your audit

Why do an energy audit?

By doing an energy audit you will be able to:

Look at the energy usage in your school;
Record the details of the energy used;
Make some evaluations or judgments about the school energy use; and
Make some recommendations to the school about how to save energy and money.

Understand more about energy and energy consumption with the Energy cheat sheet.

Doing your audit

Step 1. Work out where the energy is being used at your school.

Each group will be assigned some rooms that they will audit. Once in your room, have a look at the appliances (including lighting) that are in the room. Think about how often they are used: Every day? Once a week? Once a month? Rarely? Never? Only in summer or only in winter? And where is the energy being wasted? For example, are lights being left on in unoccupied rooms? Record your answers on Table 1.

What room/s are you looking at?

Table 1. What types of appliances are used in your room?

Step 2. What is the amount of energy used?

Work out how many hours a year your appliances are used.

Using Table 2 to calculate the total number of hours per year that the appliances in your room are in use. Some appliances will only be used during school terms or business hours while others may be left on all year round. How can these be calculated differently? (Tip: you can work out the amount of school days per year for those that are only used during school/office times.)

Use Table 3 to calculate the total number of stand-by hours for your appliances.

Table 2. Appliances on

Table 3. Appliances on stand-by

Step 3. Working out the greenhouse gas emissions in your room

Now it's time calculate the amount of carbon dioxide in kilograms that are produced as a result of the number of kilowatt hours of electricity used in your room over one year. Calculate the greenhouse gas emissions for the electrical appliances in your room. Use Table 4 to record your answers.

Download the factsheet on Calculating GHG emissions.

If you're not sure of the watts for your appliance, have a look at the Typical Power Ratings fact sheet.

Table 4. Greenhouse emissions for electrical appliances in your room per day.

Table 5. Greenhouse emissions for gas appliances in your room per day.

Add together the electrical and gas emissions totals.

Table 6: Total emissions for all appliances in your room.

Step 4. Working out the emissions for the whole school

It's time to work out the emissions for the whole school.

Using the table below (Table 7) and the information your class has collected, add up the emissions from each room to work out the grand total of emissions for your school. If you don't have information for every room, just use the information from a similar sizes room with a similar number of appliances.

Table 7. Emissions per room

How many black balloons does your school emit?

One black balloon has a volume of 50 grams CO₂e.

The calculation for the number of black balloons of greenhouse gases from your school is:

(Total kg CO₂e) x 20 = number of black balloons

Table 8. Black balloons

Did your classmates get the same answer as you? Why/why not?

How do your findings compare with the schools' bills?

By looking at your schools energy bills you will be able to see the actual amount of energy used by your school, and will be able to calculate the actual number of emissions generated through your schools energy use if this information isn't already provided on the bill. Use Table 9 and Table 10 to record your results.

Table 9. Energy consumption per year

Table 10. Greenhouse gas emissions per year

Any thoughts?

Congratulations! You've completed your energy audit! Well, almost....

Now that you’ve done an energy audit you can make recommendations as to how your school can reduce their energy usage and cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. Successful emissions reduction requires a combination of behaviour and technology. Identify the appliances drawing the most energy, and consider what technological and behavioural actions will reduce the footprint of each appliance.

Prepare a short presentation about your findings and recommendations for improvement. You will present this to School Council or your Principal. Think about the key messages you need to include in order for people to be inspired to make changes in the community.

Review questions

1. Did you find any examples of energy inefficiency at your room? Where and what were they and how could this inefficiency be addressed?

2. Do you think the emissions for your school are high or low?

3. Was there a discrepancy between your estimation of the school's energy usage and the actual energy usage? If yes, what do you think is the reason for this discrepancy?

4. What do you think the school should do to cut back on energy use and the emissions it makes?

Energy Audit (Secondary)

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