Fun at the Fall Fest

Thanks to Meryn Fluker at the Prior Lake American for sharing this picture of an enthusiastic student trying his hand at a human powered generator at the annual Community Fest earlier this week. After struggling with both hands to illuminate the incandescent bulb, this little guy got pretty excited when he only needed one hand to light up the CFL bulb.

About 350 kids and adults stopped to check it out. Several parents were impressed with this great visual comparing the energy use of the two light bulbs and thought it really helped kids understand the difference. One dad wanted to know where he could get one for his house so his family could generate some of their own power and get some exercise at the same time.

Congrats to PLHS!

Prior Lake High School in Savage was recently ENERGY STAR certified. Head building operator Dave Baumbach and his evening crew accepted the award on behalf of all the students and staff of the high school. Included in the photo above is Wold architect Kevin Marshall who performed an energy audit during the recommisioning of the facility this past year.

Click here to read the article from the Prior Lake American.

Check it Out

This Monday, September 19th is the Fall Community Fest at PLHS from 6:00-9:00 PM. There will be a couple of exciting things happening near the Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools booth located on the lower level near the Activities office.

On hand for live demonstrations will be a human powered generator. Children ages 5 to 95 years old will be able to give it a try to see if they can make a light bulb light up. There will be both an incandescent and a CFL bulb to try and see which is easier thus using less energy and which uses more energy making it harder to generate power. Which do you think will be easier to illuminate just using your muscles as the energy source? There will also be other various electronic items to try your hand at powering up. Please come by and check it out!

At 6:30 PM there will be a brief awards presentation recognizing Prior Lake High School as a certified ENERGY STAR building. In addition, the entire district will be recognized as an ENERGY STAR Leader having been named a Top Performer and having achieved 10% overall improvement.

So please stop by on Monday night and tell me one way you are saving energy either at school or at home and pick up a green treat!

Making the Grade

If the Prior Lake-Savage Area School District were to receive a grade for their 2nd quarter results, it would have to be an A+ for the outstanding efforts made during April, May and June to save energy. Kudos to our ever energy conscious staff and students because during those three months the district reduced their overall energy consumption by a whopping 20% resulting in a $53,824.00 savings to the district! When added to the total of $199,364.00 from 2010 and the $47,651.00 from the first quarter of 2011, our total savings since implementing the SEE program are (drum roll, please) $300,839.00!!!

It cannot be repeated enough, this is a huge TEAM effort between everyone who consumes energy in the district: from the custodians and kitchen staffs to the teachers and administrators to the I.T. staff and building secretaries to all the students and everyone else throughout the district. Thanks for making the grade when it comes to energy efficiency!

Make a Resolution!

It's a New School Year and a great time to make a resolution to save some energy! Remember that every flip of a switch, push of a button, or any effort to conserve energy adds up to big savings for our district. It's a team effort so please do your part to stretch our dollars further and keep the money in the classrooms to benefit the awesome students in Savage and Prior Lake.

Stay tuned for some exciting news about what all lies ahead in year 3 of the SEE program. Also, coming soon, great news from ENERGY STAR about two awards for our district. And please check back for some amazing 2nd quarter results to be posted next week.

Happy New School Year!

Have a groovy and efficient Labor Day Weekend!