Smart energy savers

Lanesborough Elementary sixth-graders are on patrol

Lanesborough Elementary School is all charged up about becoming a more energy-efficient building.

Sixth-graders spent the first part of the year studying green issues such as climate change and energy conservation.

Now armed with watt-hour meters, wall charts and some Arctic critter plush toys, the students will audit how much energy is being used — or overused — in the school.

"We'll be patrolling," sixth-grade student Nick Vlahopoulos said at last week's launch of the Lanesborough Elementary Energy Efficiency Patrol.

The 39 sixth-graders paired off to give presentations to all of the school's classes to explain the mission of the energy-saving campaign.

Throughout the week, the older students will measure energy use in everything from the school's televisions to computer labs to classroom lights.

A maximum of 50 bulbs can be used to light a classroom, but the circuit they're on can reduce use from 50 to 27 to nine bulbs.

At minimum, the classroom lights use 288 watts, at maximum, it jumps to 1,600 watts. "If we see a class using less light, we'll put a star on their chart," Vlahopoulos said.

If the class forgets to turn off lights or computers, the Grade 6 patrol will leave a small plush polar bear or penguin in the classroom as a friendly reminder to do so. But the classroom who saves the most energy at the end of the week will get to keep a big plush polar bear with their class as a trophy.

When sixth-grader Andrew Whitaker asked a first-grade class, "Who wants a polar bear?" every youngster's hand shot up.

"This can help the world and save the school money," said the boy's presentation partner, Sara Rudd.

And the latter is fine by the school.

According to Superintendent Rose Ellis, the school has a motion-detection light system in its gymnasium and head custodian Ed Ahern recently installed a similar system in a student bathroom to see if it can result in power savings.

At a preliminary projection, it could result in at least $1,000 in cost savings.

Lanesborough Elementary is labeled as a BEST (Berkshire Environmental School Teams), which receives support from the Center for Ecological Technology and funding for green learning initiatives through the Berkshire Bank Foundation.

The goal is to tie the initiatives into science, math and language arts curriculum through hands-on learning and proactive campaigns and projects.

There are six BEST schools: Lanesborough, Muddy Brook, Egremont and Undermountain elementary schools and Nessacus Regional and Conte middle schools. Both Conte and Nessacus will be starting energy conservation programs and all of the elementary schools have waste reduction and recycling initiatives in place.