Eco-Schools

The Eco Warriors have regular meetings to discuss and then communicate any actions or concerns. This year we have been working extremely hard to gain our Green Flag: this officially states that we are an Eco school.

We are concentrating on 3 topics: litter, school grounds and biodiversity, that is not to say that other topics have not been covered too!   

Each class takes it in turn to litter pick and the Eco Warriors make sure that everyone does! As a school we have taken recycling projects seriously, and we always encourage the use of recycling bins.  

The Eco and gardening club have planted many plants, some especially to encourage bees and butterflies. Some children have even built bug hotels and houses. 

Look at how much energy our solar panels have produced:

In 2016 we produced over 9500 kilwatt hour (kWh) and in 2017 over 8500 kWh.

So what exactly is a kilowatt hour?

A kilowatt hour (kWh) is a measure of how much energy you’re using.

It doesn’t mean the number of kilowatts you’re using per hour. It is simply a unit of measurement that equals the amount of energy you would use if you kept a 1,000 watt appliance running for an hour.

So if you switched on a 100 watt light bulb, it would take 10 hours to rack up 1 kWh of energy.

What else takes around 1 kilowatt hour?

Here are some rough examples of 1 kWh:

• Using a 10,000 watt electric shower for six minutes
• Keeping an immersion heater (3,000 watts) on for 20 minutes
• Cooking in a 2,000 watt oven for half an hour
• An hour’s ironing with a 1,000 watt iron or 45 minutes with a 1,500 watt iron
• Less than an hour using a dishwasher (1,000 - 1,500 watts)
• Around three hours watching a plasma TV (280 - 450 watts)
• Keeping a fridge-freezer (200 - 400 watts) on for about three hours
• Keeping an electric blanket (130 - 200 watts) on all night
• Using a laptop (20 - 50 watts) all day
• Keeping a broadband router (7 - 10 watts) on for five days