Monte Cassino Thinking Green
BLUE TO GREEN: Teachers, staff and students have been learning about ways to create a more energy efficient home and school. Here Cory Hoffart, left, is with several Monte Cassino faculty and staff after an educational presentation on how to be more green.
Teachers, staff and students of Monte Cassino are currently making efforts to become more energy efficient. Working with Cory Hoffart of Green Collar Energy, the school is investigating solar power and other retrofits to see their feasibility.
The monastery is also involved in the project, considering replacing older single pane windows with newer insulated versions. They are also looking at a solar-powered water heating system from Sun City Solar Energy.
Another piece to the project is teaching students to adjust their behaviors to be more “green.” They are turning off unused lights, recycling and more.
Hoping to establish an educational program that would enable teachers, staff and students to use less electricity in their homes and classrooms, Hoffart presented to the students. First, he presented ways to lower energy use in the schools and then he described energy, electricity, power generation, uses of electricity, financial and environmental costs of electricity production as well as ways to use it more efficiently and effectively.
The next step includes installing an Eniscope, an Advanced Smart Meter that will allow the administration to track real-time electricity use, cost and related emissions. The monitor also helps detect savings opportunities of up to 40%, exposes energy abusing equipment, reveals ‘out of office hours’ waste and includes historical analysis tools that help to target continual reductions.
These uses and reductions will be incorporated into an on-going science program for students to track and compare over time.
Updated 02-19-2010
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