PILOTS SNAPSHOTS IN VYSOCINA
Local activities in Czech pilot clusters were based on energy efficient activities in educational buildings. Due to fact that Czech associated partner – Vysočina Region owns all high school in region and due to fact that work with students is much better then with adult as they are more open to new ideas and approaches, EAV as a project partner decided to work with students of high schools and gymnasiums. During implementation of our pilots students were not the only target group, we have focused on. We worked with different employees of school buildings:
- We had many meetings with school principals who shared their issues and problems in relation to the building and thanks to our direct contact with owner of buildings (associated partner of the project) we could interpret these issues right to the owner. i.e. necessity of energy retrofitting of the building
- Our cooperation with school caretakers were very close too. Due to fact that they know their building very well, we needed them during installation of smart metering. We were in touch on daily basis.
- Teachers from pilot schools took TOGETHER study materials and helped us with enforcement of energy efficient habits.
EAV (based on application form) apply an approach of mixed monitoring system (manual and automatic). 5 buildings were equipped by smart metering system (automatic data collection) and 5 buildings use manual data collection – janitors manually collect consumption data on weekly basis. Following energy is monitored in Czech pilot cluster buildings: Electricity, Gas and Heat. The first part of pilot actions was to analyze technical equipment of the building (heating, cooling, lighting, etc.) to make a list of requirements for smart meters installation. These activities were carried out in cooperation with janitors and caretakers. In buildings without SM system the procedure of manual data collection has been arranged. The second part was installation of smart meters itself and start trial operation of smart meters. To verify the consumption data with real data, janitor collect the consumption data manually too. Subsequently EAV started with raising awareness campaign in pilot buildings. In duration of pilot actions students was introduced in energy efficiency issues and gained their knowledge and habits in the field of energy efficiency and waste management. The involvement of pupils was supported by educational stories (mainly the Planet defenders interactive game, which is commonly used in English language as a combination of English language and physics teaching), posters, labels, notice boards etc. Another important action was exchange of experience between students from different pilot schools, where they meet each other. For students of pilot buildings were organised study visits in cooperation with Chamber of Commerce of Vysočina region, which cover costs for these study visits. During implementation of pilot actions EAV used the Energy audit kit (purchased in WPT2) as a practical example for students. They taught how to work with thermocamera, multifunctional meters, laser distance meter, IR thermometer, and clamp multimeter, but we let them work with other meters with which we work on daily basis too – CO2 meter, Humidity meter, Lux meter etc. Pilot implementation approach was different in different schools based on their interest i.e. in Gymnasium there are very enthusiastic students, there is a team of students who worked on EE activities, they worked with all above mentioned devices fulfilling practical exercises. On the other side in schools were students work with heavy machines and not spend much time in classrooms the approach must be more systematic (i.e. checking of turning off machines which are not used in current time), students and sometimes even teachers are not open to practical examples and exercises, they just "fulfil their duties".