One of the biggest problems our school board friends face is how to control energy in the portable classrooms. These classrooms are used to handle excess students, and like regular classrooms, they need to have proper lighting and temperature control. Getting the right lighting and HVAC systems is not a problem, but controlling them in an energy efficient manner is more of a challenge.
With these systems unless the HVAC units and lights are turned off when the space is unoccupied, we are wasting very expensive energy. Most schools have a building automation sytem to perform these functions in the main buildings. However, this is not usually a viable way to control the portable classrooms since they are detached from the main building and the high cost of running the building automation system control wire between buildings makes this a very expensive option. We have provided “ wireless” solutions that work well, but the expense is still too high for most budgets, especially in these tough economic times.
Many schools have been provided with programmable thermostats so they can schedule times when the space will be occupied. The challenge with this approach is that holidays and schedule changes are not accounted for, so someone must go to all the portable classrooms and manually override the system or the units will be running with no one in the room.
Stromquist has a solution. If you took a programmable thermostat, added an occupancy sensor and an auxiliary output relay to control your lighting, what would you have? A low cost way to control energy and provide excellent temperature control in your portable classrooms.
If you are a Stromquist customer or are located in Georgia or Florida call 800.241.9471 and ask for Steven or Cera. If you are not a Stromquist customer please contact one of our affiliates at CGNA.
