Monday, April 19, 2010

Classroom electricity meters


Long time back when I used to conduct trainings on environmental audits... a very introvert teacher from Ludhiana asked me a question, while I was explaining energy audits. He said "Sir...Can't we put sub meters in everyclass?". It took me a while to understand his question and so did the other participants. But when we all got it...we all stood up and clapped for the gentleman...how had kept the entire day in the training.


What he meant was why not put a small sub meter in every classroom and monitor its energy consumption. He promptly added later that a sub meter costs Rs 150 in Ludhiana.

Generations of school principals have given long speeches in the morning assembly asking studetns to switch off lights etc...but no one seems to care or bother.


Figure this out... what if we put a sub-meter outside every class...lets say 6th A and 6th B. At the begining of everymonth...take the meter to zero and tell all the students that at the end of the month...we will see who consumes more electricity. I bet this will certainly lead to getting those lights and fans swithched off promptly.


Well...thats my dream at the moment. To have a school, in which every classroom has an electricity meter.


Imagine the precision of a electric energy audit at this place and if the data is fed in a system...one would be able to know...which areas are consuming more energy.


And believe me a sub meter actually costs that low... I have personally done a survey in Lajpat Rai market(Chandni Chowk) about the same. The best one would be around Rs 600.


Try it...I am sure it will work.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Waste Auditing and Zero Waste schools

I have heard a lot of schools bragging about being zero-waste. But if you ask them...how did they come to a figure zero...they have no answers. After all in an equation, one needs to prove how everything = 0.
The truth is that most of the schools brag about their waste management systems of composting and waste segregation without having an idea about the exact amount of waste which is generated in the school.

Finding the exact amount of waste generated on a daily basis is actually called a waste audit.
There's a small film I have made on doing a waste audit. Do watch it on youtube at the following link. This is the first ever video documentation of a waste audit in India and perhaps South Asia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyICoDPPt58

Apart from it being an enviornmental activity...it has immense educational value of teaching scientific data collection as also social sensitivity towards fellow human beings, who help us keep our cities clean.