Santee Schools Win CA Kilowatt Challenge, Save $7,745 in Electricity

The Santee School District saved $7,745 during a three-week, district-wide electricity reduction competition that finished earlier this month.  

The Santee District was one of two districts in the state to be chosen in the California K-12 Kilowatt Challenge, a statewide contest sponsored by Lucid, a California-based technology company. The two districts were selected to take part in district-wide competition.

Pepper Drive School saved the most in Santee, with a 19.3% reduction in their electricity use. As the winning school, they’ll be receiving their very own Building Dashboard with real-time electricity monitoring from Lucid, along with four shade trees from the district.

During the three-week competitions, which wrapped up on Oct. 19, students, faculty, and staff in both districts competed to achieve the greatest percent reduction in their school's electricity use by turning off lights when not needed, unplugging electronics after the school day finished, and other conservation actions. 

Santee saw an overall reduction of 14.7%, saving approximately 35,200 kilowatt-hours, $7,745, and 24,600 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

“Parents, teachers, and students were overwhelmed with how they could make a difference in saving classroom energy dollars,” said Christina Becker, Director of Maintenance, Operations & Facilities at Santee School District.

In addition to posting these impressive savings, the competitions provided valuable educational opportunities, such as enabling teachers and students to understand how their behavior impacts electricity consumption and discover how conservation actions can reduce that impact.

During the competition, students, teachers, staff and parents in both districts used Building Dashboard, web-based software made by Lucid, to track competition standings and compare performance between schools. Santee’s Building Dashboard can be viewed at http://www.buildingdashboard.com/clients/santeesd. 

“Santee School District is so impressed with the potential savings this technology can inspire that we want to do energy competitions more often throughout the year,” said Becker.

PRIDE Academy at Prospect Avenue School was on close on the heels of Pepper Drive, taking second place with a 19.2% reduction, and Rio Seco School finished a very close third place with an 18.5% reduction. All three schools were recognized at an awards ceremony on October 30 at Pepper Drive School.