Energy, water and economic savings by changing habits of users in twelve schools in Spain

ABSTRACT

Energy saving and the development of renewable energies already form part of the daily discourse in our society. Climate change and the environmental problems arising from it affect all of us on the planet. In view of the recent energy supply crisis in Europe and in line with the EU's Sustainable Development Goals, it is necessary to accelerate the ecological transition. This means, among many other things, encouraging energy efficiency and energy savings. This research is based on the EURONET 50/50 max project, which applied a methodology with no upfront capital outlay, but based on changing user habits to save energy in educational buildings. It was carried out in twelve educational centres of the Spínola Foundation throughout Spain. Significant reductions in energy and water consumption were achieved. The maximum reduction obtained in water consumption was 29%, 24% in electricity consumption and 33% in heating consumption. The average reduction in consumption obtained was 13% compared to 11% achieved in the 50/50 max project. It was concluded that, on the journey to optimising our energy consumption, working on patterns of usage is fundamental, raising awareness and involving users in order to give rise to permanent processes over time, gradually reversing climate change.

KEYWORDS:

• Energy empowerment
• user habits
• energy efficiency
• energy consumption in educational buildings
• participation of the educational community

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).