Energy saving in the education sector has been brought to the forefront as it was revealed that a UK school is on course to shave over 12% off its annual energy bill after installing a power management system across its entire IT suite.

Richard Brent, bursar at St Faith’s independent school in Cambridge, told Energy Demand the school had seen £3,500 in savings on its energy bill since it installed the Dell KACE 1000 power management system in August.

With a total annual electricity bill of £48,000, savings of £3,500 in seven months were “not insignificant” he said. If the current rate of saving continues, the school could see its energy bills drop by around £6,000.

The school, which has 280 computers including those used by teaching and administrative staff, said the system has halved the cost of running its IT suite.  Before the system was installed, each computer was costing approximately £72 per year, Brent said.

Meanwhile, Dell reported that the Woodbridge High School in east London had seen savings of £12,000 in 18 months as a result of installing the system.

Dell KACE is an IT appliance with a power management function that allows system administrators to control the power usage of machines in an IT suite, including how long a monitor is idle before going into sleep mode. This ensures that all machines are powered down at the end of the day, and determining when they are turned on in the morning.

It also allows different levels of performance across different sections of the suite to accommodate different needs. For example the system can be set to allow a teacher using a computer to project a graphic onto a whiteboard can be given a longer window of idle computer use without the system powering down, while office staff computers automatically sleep after a set period of time.

The Dell system was installed as part of an on-going effort from St Faith’s to reduce the school’s energy use, which led to it winning the Eco Schools Green Flag award in 2012.

In addition to the Dell system, the school has also installed LED lighting, carried out an energy audit, and installed renewable technologies across the site.

“We wanted to improve how IT assets were managed and controlled so that pupils would get a consistent and positive experience of technology within the classroom,” said Brent. “This is part of our wider approach to reducing energy consumption across the school, which includes everything from lighting and building development through to IT.”