Department of Education

Background

The Department of Education and Children operates 38 schools across the Isle of Man, as well as the Isle of Man College of Further and Higher Education. It delivers a spectrum of services for children, including safeguarding and needs based assistance.

Project

Stroma was asked to provide an effective strategy for reduction in energy consumption and carbon emissions across the entire Education property estate. This consisted of 56 sites to include Primary and Secondary Schools, Colleges and Youth Centres, throughout the Isle of Man.

Stroma conducted energy assessments of all sites including the production of Display Energy Certificates (DECs), Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and Air Tightness Testing to benchmark the energy performance for the entire property estate, A series of recommendations was developed providing likely energy reduction measures throughout the Department. This included a clear prioritisation of sites where greatest opportunity for improvement existed.

Stroma then completed detailed energy audits and undertook complex dynamic simulation modelling (DSM) and thermal modelling to build an accurate understanding of the cost effectiveness of various improvement measures. These included: air tightness improvements, insulation works, LED lighting replacement and lighting controls, HVAC replacement, BMS optimisation and renewable energy systems.

Outcome

The Department of Education has since implemented air tightness improvements to approximately half of their building stock, seeing air tightness standards improve at one site by 58%. A range of other energy improvement works has been tendered for 6 other sites. Our works resulted in the Department being recognised in the Isle of Man Government Energy Awards, winning the Public Sector Best Practice Award in 2012.