10 Jan Comparing Winter Consumption

Comparing Winter Consumption

We are well on our way into 2023 now, with schools in their second week of the new term, all the joys of Christmas a distant memory, and Spring still a few months away. It’s January and many people are counting down the days until the equinox and the warmer weather, when we can turn our heating off and embrace the brighter days. But until then, with the lights on and many, many layers worn, there’s work to be done.

In December last year, we challenged our schools to try and decrease their electricity consumption during the Christmas closure. As we now have 1 year’s worth of data, we are able to compare their usage now with 1 year ago – a valuable metric for our schools. We have also compared their usage in the second half of last term (31^st October onwards) – 2021 vs 2022.

Our findings

During term time, 3 out of 5 schools managed to decrease their consumption – a great result! These schools worked really hard to improve their energy behaviours, with teachers putting in a lot of effort themselves and pupil eco-teams encouraging other students to take part too. One school in particular told us about all of the work they had been doing when we spoke in December and they were excited to see their results. This school’s hard work has paid off – literally. They have saved over £680 compared to the same period in 2021 (calculated using 2021 tariffs).

The results from the Christmas holidays are not so clear cut. Only one school decreased their consumption over the holidays. This school is one of the most engaged with our project and we have no doubt that the hard work of the headteacher and eco-team leader will have impacted this encouraging result. For some of the other schools, although they have not managed to decrease, when you look more closely you can see a pattern emerge. Many of our schools lease their property out to the community during closures, which they weren’t all able to do in 2021 due to covid. Looking at the graph, you can see that the increases correspond with these rentals, meaning the school is being compensated for this increased consumption.

The insight provided by our data is invaluable to our schools. Whether it is motivating them by comparing them to their competitors (who knew headteachers were so competitive), showing the results of their hard work, or predicting their usage, our data supports the schools in every way they need. They’ve worked a lot to improve in the past few months and we look forward to supporting them through the next few months with more challenges and, as ever, more data!