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Case Study: Whitehouse School Energy Audit

Front view of Whitehall School building in Readington Township, NJ. It underwent an energy audit to fix school energy issues.

Client: Whitehouse School in Readington Township, NJ 

Challenge: According to the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the K-12 school building sector spends $6 billion dollars a year on energy bills. Second only to teacher salaries, utility bills require more from the average school budget than textbooks and computer equipment combined. Imagine the boost to programming and facilities if much of that money could be rerouted! Readington Township Public School District did just that when they embarked on a six-year journey toward achieving the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® Certification.

The road to that certification involves meeting strict energy performance standards. In fact, a building must obtain a score of 75 or better, which means it performs better than 75% of buildings nationwide. To get Whitehouse School to that level, the district would need to audit and benchmark the current situation, then facilitate sustainable energy-saving policies.

Solutions: Haglid Engineering, Inc. was called in to audit the school through a system called Portfolio Manager. Among other criteria, an audit reveals how many kilowatt-hours a building uses per square foot. Audit results led to recommendations for operational changes, upgrades, and modeling of potential energy efficiency projects that would yielded the greatest and most cost-effective energy reductions.

Solutions for reducing energy usage included light sensors, adopting moderate heating and cooling setpoints, and getting students and staff excited about what they could accomplish by being energy conscious. Another key area addressed was ensuring healthy indoor air quality. Again, auditing and benchmarking came into play so that Whitehouse School could meet ASHRAE Standard 62.1, which specifies acceptable minimum ventilation rates for indoor air quality, and ASHRAE Standard 55, which standardizes healthy thermal conditions.

By the time Whitehouse School met ENERGY STAR® certification requirements, the students and staff had become involved with energy-related classroom activities and energy saving strategies. As a result, they saved approximately $421,000 in energy costs over 54 months. Whitehouse School had become more energy efficient than 85% of other buildings, with an ENERGY STAR® score of 85!

For more information on achieving healthy, sustainable, energy-efficient HVAC, call Haglid Engineering at 201.722.1233.

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