The DeKalb County Board of Education voted Thursday night to enter into an agreement with Johnson Controls to bring improve the energy efficiency of school properties.
The board agreed to allow Johnson Controls to continue a study to seek out excessive areas of energy consumption and recommend improvements to these areas in order to cut consumption across the district.
Johnson Controls representatives are to present a report on their findings detailing changes that need to be made.
Joe Bond of Johnson Controls addressed the board at last week’s meeting, telling members that the price of making any changes advised by the study should be offset by the resulting savings in energy costs.
Bond said that improvements could include new lighting systems, water conservation plans and upgrades to some HVAC systems, some of which have remained operational for almost 50 years.
“We were able to come out and do a preliminary assessment a couple of months ago,” Bond told the assembly. “Our engineers came on site and spent a couple of days walking the buildings with your maintenance director and what we found was an opportunity to help upgrade the buildings with no extra tax dollars affected. This is money you are already spending today. You just happen to be writing the check out to the utility company whether it’s TVA or your natural gas provider or water company. This money will be redirected back into your buildings and to upgrade your facilities especially at the high school.”
Bond said that the DeKalb County High School, which is still heated and cooled by some of the same equipment installed during construction of the facility in 1963, will likely be a focus of the study.
“The high school is the culprit of a lot of the energy use in the county, but that's not unusual because most high schools are going to run a lot more than elementary or middle schools,” he said. “What we learned here in DeKalb County is that you spent a little over $570,000 in utilities last year. You have right at 412,000 square feet. The buildings vary in age. Some of them are over 30 years old and with various updates and additions throughout them.”
Bond said the study might be completed by early March, at which point he will return to the board with a detailed proposal concerning the recommended repairs and the projected savings.
At that point the board may vote to opt out or sign a contract with Johnson Controls.
The cost for the study is $11,000.
Bond assured the board members that if his company’s plan does not deliver the savings the study promises, the company will pay the difference between what they guaranteed and the actual consumption of energy.
“A performance contract generates guaranteed utility savings,” he said. “Our firm does guarantee the savings and we do write you a check if we fall short of those savings.”
Director of Schools Mark Willoughby told those present that he sees the move as an opportunity to save a great deal of money on utility bills.
“The cost for the study is $11,000, but that money could be absorbed through cost savings if the school system later decides to proceed with work to implement the recommendations of Johnson Controls,” Willoughby said. “They work with several different school systems in basically saving them a significant amount of money on energy and utilities. If we did enter into a contract with Johnson Controls, we would not be using any additional money from the school system. We would not be using any additional tax dollars to do this project.”
Willoughby also said that the agreement would also help identify and replace ailing equipment on school properties that are not only using too much energy, but eating up time and money in maintenance costs.
“If we do this, it would upgrade our climate control systems, possibly our use of water in the schools, and make everything more efficient,” said the director. “The savings would go toward funding these projects where each year we're spending several thousand dollars on replacing air conditioning and heating units at schools.
“This is a way that we could possibly go ahead and do everything and get upgraded so we're not trying to do catch up all the time. We have some units that have been running since 1963. Our maintenance people do an excellent job patching them and keeping them going, but we could replace some of those and save a lot of money.”