Greenprofs

Steven Gremillion spends his day hunting.The energy manager at Clear Creek Independent School District stalks the hogs in odd places. He has found them in superfluous vending machine lights and in the form of inefficient bulbs hiding in exit signs.There are 19,000 computers in the district, humming, buzzing and feeding on the power grid like hungry mosquitoes. Gremillion has swatted them down.He’s found energy hogs in the outdoor lighting system. He found them in the boiler and the chiller, which, at times, were waging unnecessary and costly battles against one another.Every find is a small triumph for Gremillion — one small step toward helping the public school district meet a state mandate to reduce energy consumption 5 percent each year from now through 2013.

Across the state, public school districts are passing plans to reduce energy consumption. It’s an effort to comply with a state law passed in 2007 to help the state reduce the amount of power placed on the energy grid, especially during peak demand periods.Predicting an energy shortfall, legislators passed House Bill 3693 to reduce energy consumption and avoid rolling blackouts and brownouts.The law requires public school districts and universities, among other government agencies, to adopt energy efficiency programs.Besides the law, school districts are motivated by soaring energy prices. In Galveston County, Dickinson, Friendswood, Galveston and Texas City school districts spent a combined $6.8 million on electricity in 2007.

He regularly visits science classrooms to extol the virtues of turning off lights.
He’s made a deal with soda and snack companies to switch off the lights in vending machines.
He’s replacing all of the incandescent light bulbs in the district’s 633 exit signs with light-emitting-diode lights, which consume 95 percent less energy.

Other schools are:
Turning off lights in classrooms that are empty for more than five minutes
Setting thermostats at 74 degrees on hot days and 70 degrees on cool days
Shutting down all computers and copiers at the end of the day
Banning personal refrigerators and space heaters
Consolidating after-school activities
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