8/19/2009 UW students help Wedgwood school go green Program includes energy solutions, curriculum plans
■ Matt Tong (from left), Scott McIntyre, Robert Radulescu, Joey Berger, Kyle Hughes and Ted Wegrich of UW’s NECA student chapter stand in front of their most recent project. photo courtesy of NECA
A team of six University of Washington students submitted a proposal last spring for what they hope will become Seattle Public Schools' next step toward going green.
They are one of seven teams asked to compete in the National Electrical Contractors Association's (NECA) first Green Energy Challenge. It requires teams from student NECA chapters to work with a local elementary school to improve the efficiency of their energy use.
The UW team chose Wedgwood Elementary School because one team member had a close connection. Kyle Hughes, who is active in the Wedgwood community, lives just a few blocks from the school and was confident that his group's project would receive community support, especially since the school was eligible for a new lighting retrofit.
SCHOOL INVOLVEMENT
NECA's challenge required the teams to organize and conduct an energy audit of the school's current electrical systems and decide which potential changes or improvements would make the school more energy-efficient.
A second requirement was to design a photovoltaic (PV) system, a type of solar energy that would reduce the school's consumption by adding light energy as a function of the electrical system.
The team worked closely with two clients, Wedgwood principal Denise Espania and Nicole Riss, a resource conservation specialist from Seattle Public Schools.
"It was a pretty unique experience working with two different clients," said team captain Joey Berger. "Nicole gave us the reality check about how different systems really work,
and then Principal Espania and [the] school faculty addressed the issues they experienced with the current system. The school was really into sustainability."
A part of the photovoltaic system requirement was to create a way for teachers to integrate the design into the elementary school's curriculum. "We are also putting two PV panels in front of the school with two new lights," Berger explained, "and it'll be more interactive learning as the PV panels charge the lights and a computer monitor within the entry of the school displays how much power they are saving."
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Working hard within the community and raising awareness about the project played a big role in the amount of support they received, Berger said. "If we have people already excited about the project, they are more apt to support it through funding later."
The team saw education as a much bigger portion of their proposal than just the required inclusion of the PV system. "A lot of the Wedgwood community is made up of families whose children go to Wedgwood elementary," Hughes said. "If we can educate their children by implementing a PV system at the school and they can learn how sustainable technologies work for society, it gives more incentives for community support."
Their work at Wedgwood has already inspired one teacher to integrate the Cool School Challenge into a class, Berger added, which is an on-line program that teaches students about sustainability and introduces them to energy-efficient ways they can save money at home and school.
Beyond finding monetary support, the team looked to their mentors for direction and advice about the proposal. "Cochran Electric was very helpful in giving us support on our proposal, and we also met with sustainability specialists at McKinstry [Co.]," Berger said. "We presented our project to the NECA board members during their monthly board meeting, which was a great networking opportunity with the construction industry."
POTENTIAL OBSTACLES
After instant rebates, the projected total cost of the project was close to $266,000. The $190,000 in returns came primarily from Seattle City Light, Bonneville Educational Foundation, King County and the LEED Grants Program.
"We're all aware of the budget crisis that Seattle Public Schools is facing," Hughes said, "and we understand that they aren't going to have all this cash to throw into a project like this."
So he and his teammates made sure to consider all of the possible obstacles they could run into, aiming to keep their plan within realistic boundaries.
"We went into this having costs in mind, made sure payback periods were low and tried to figure out all the possible incentives that our state has to offer," he said.
Seattle Public Schools desires a payback period of seven years, just one of many stresses that local school regulations added to the challenge. Another policy restricts any kind of penetration into school roofs, which made it especially difficult to meet the PV energy-system portion of the challenge. But the team wanted to keep their proposal as realistic as possible, so they worked around each restriction they came across.
"We found a tethered system where there is no roof penetration and uses aluminum metal frames," Hughes said, "so we were not only able to meet the requirements of the competition but also abide by the Seattle Public School policies."
COMING TO FRUITION
Hughes thinks this will set UW apart from the six other teams in the competition. But it has also worked in supporting their hopes to actually put the proposal into effect.
"We do want this to come to fruition," Hughes said, "whether it's us putting it forth, or just presenting it to the Seattle Public Schools for more ideas to implement as a sort of template for the rest of their schools."
The final proposal would reduce annual utility-purchased energy by 103,000 kilowatt hours, which is about 53 percent less than the school's current spending.
"We're shooting to reduce Wedgwood's energy consumption by 20 percent with just the PV system alone, which is pretty substantial when you break down the numbers in terms of saving per year," Hughes said.
