As School Winds Down, Decarbonisation Planning Should Ramp Up
If you work in school estates, the chances are you’ve already looked at tackling the “big three” of energy efficiency: LED Lighting, Solar PV and Heat Pumps. These interventions have become the foundation of school decarbonisation plans across the country, and rightly so. Often grant funded, widely understood and proven, and capable of delivering impressive results.
But once those upgrades have been implemented, what’s next?
We regularly speak to schools who are ready for the next phase, looking to squeeze more value out of their existing systems or take the next step towards decarbonisation. The good news is, there are smart, low cost ways to keep making progress. And often, these are changes that don’t involve major disruption to the school day.
Take boiler optimisation for example. Many schools rely on gas boilers, often oversized, and often operating in a way that wastes heat unnecessarily. Rather than replacing the boiler altogether (which can be costly and complex), optimisation technology can be easily fitted to improve how it runs. In simple terms, it uses sensors and software to constantly measure the real time heat demand of your school. It then adjusts the boilers flow temperature dynamically, lowering it when the demand is low and only raising it when needed. This stops the boiler from doing something called short cycling and improves efficiency, extends the life of the boiler while never compromising comfort.
For many schools, this can cut heating bills by 15-30%, with payback in some cases in under 18 months. That’s a significant saving, especially in schools where heating is one of their largest energy costs.
Another valuable step to take is improving heating comfort at room level. If your school has radiators, installing Smart Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs) could be a great option. These battery powered units replace traditional radiator valves and are programmed to maintain set temperatures in each room, responding to actual usage and occupancy, and each teacher’s own level of comfort. They can be managed via a central dashboard or app, giving site teams far more control over individual spaces. The result is more even heating, fewer overheated classrooms, and less need for reactive fixes when temperatures go out of range.
Smart controls go well beyond heating. Motion sensors, daylight sensors and even door or window monitors can all be linked into building systems to respond intelligently to how spaces are used. Lighting can dim or switch off when there’s enough natural daylight, or when rooms are unoccupied. These solutions can often be added to existing infrastructure and adjusted over time as your needs evolve.
And it’s not just about using less energy, it’s about understanding your energy usage better. We always recommend that schools install energy monitoring to easily spot when something isn’t quite right. Perhaps heating is running overnight, or the lights in a hall are being left on all weekend. Having that level of visibility allows your site team to react quickly, and more importantly, to make more informed decisions about energy reduction measures.
For schools that already have solar PV, there’s also the potential to go a step further. Recent developments in carbon trading now allow schools to sell the carbon savings from their solar panels as verified carbon credits, generating additional income of up to 10p per kWh. That’s on top of any energy bill savings or feed in tariffs, and can improve the overall financial return on a solar project by up to 33%. For systems already in place, it’s a straightforward way to unlock extra value from your existing investment.
Other small changes, like pipe insulation or draught proofing windows and doors, are easy to overlook but still important. They help maintain stable indoor temperatures and maximise the efficiency of whatever heating system you’re using, whether that’s a gas boiler or a newly installed heat pump.
All of this points to the simple idea that improving your school’s energy performance doesn’t have to involve another major capital project. In many cases it’s about adding improvement and layers to what you’ve already got. It’s about tightening up controls, understanding your energy usage, and capturing every opportunity to improve comfort, reduce cost and cut carbon.
At Warneford Consulting we’re proud to support schools with the “usual suspects”. We’ve helped dozens of clients to secure funding to implement successful LED lighting schemes, Solar PV installations and low carbon heating systems. These all remain vital for any decarbonisation plan, and often provide the biggest energy savings.
But we don’t stop there.
If your school has already made some of these upgrades, we can help you take things further. Whether that’s optimising your boiler, introducing smart room controls, or exploring carbon credit revenue, we’re here to help you keep improving.
Now’s the prefect time to plan ahead, September will (unfortunately) come round quicker than you think, and we’ll be heading towards colder, darker days that account for the majority of annual energy bills. By planning ahead we can help you make improvements that will help keep those bills as low as possible.
Contact me for more information or to discuss your school’s decarbonisation planning
