John O' Gaunt School, Hungerford

Utileyes is a simple yet highly effective addition to RM's portfolio of resources for education. Probes are simply attached to utility meters and a data logger is fitted that collates and sends data back to a central data centre.

John O' Gaunt school in Hungerford was one of the first in the UK to take on RM's new Utileyes energy monitoring system. They have made some outstanding savings so far, and this is just the beginning.

Making savings is a top priority for most schools, even more so with current funding uncertainties. Bursars and business managers tell us they face increasing pressure in making their schools meet budget and cutting costs across the board.

Bursar Peter Moorcroft, took over at John O' Gaunt school in Hungerford 2 years ago. The school has 456 pupils, 72 staff and a specialism in technology. The school was struggling financially so Peter knew he had to act fast. He'd already taken steps to insulate the school and replace old windows to save on energy costs, but for Peter, that wasn't enough.

John O' Gaunt school are committed to the 10:10 project, a scheme that over 1,700 schools have signed up to, which unites every sector of society behind one simple idea: to cut emissions by 10% in 2010. Peter and his school are committed to this project and hoped this objective would help students to learn the important of using fossil fuels responsibly and help with the school budget.

Peter decided to take pioneering steps in order to make a difference so he implemented RM Utileyes. By doing so, Peter has experienced staggering cost savings in electricity, gas and water.

Installing Utileyes is a simple procedure. Peter's experience with this new innovation has been easy. "Putting the loggers in was painless," he recalls. "There is no intrusive wiring and we were up and running immediately after installation."

Peter has access to all the data and easy-to-understand energy usage reports online so he can see where savings can be made. He doesn't even need any software or client licences - just a web browser and Internet connection. As the data is available in real time he checks it almost everyday so he can react quickly to any potential problems.

Says Peter, "immediately at a glance from the dashboard, the first thing I discovered was that our gas boilers were firing up in the middle of the night. I'd never have known this without Utileyes." Once identified, Peter fixed the issue and immediately began to make savings on gas which now amount to £1,464.

Peter gets everyone involved with energy saving by printing out and sharing energy usage charts from the dashboard with staff and the student eco-group at the school. Utileyes has also been integrated into the curriculum and is being discussed in science, geography and technology classes.

"There is no downside at all to Utileyes," enthuses Peter. "I've seen in excess of 10% savings on electricity and gas. Without Utileyes it'd have been a stab in the dark, but now, the fantastic monitoring system alerts me to anything that's going wrong."

Peter is also really happy with the relationship RM has with the school. "I've had great support from RM and integrating Utileyes has been incredibly easy."

Peter's advice to other schools and colleges looking to save energy is to take it one step at a time, and to show some numbers and progress to staff and students as soon as you can, so you can prove your efforts are making a difference. "Utileyes was ideal for us", says Peter. A perfect one stop shop for monitoring all utility usage in one go." 

Get in touch with Peter - If you'd like to discuss Utileyes, Peter would be happy for you to get in touch with him directly at pmoorcroft1@westberks.org or why not drop RM a line at rmmarketing@rm.com