Energy saving measures made by the Newton County School System has shown a decrease in the money spent out the last two years.

According to a presentation given Tuesday to the Newton County Board of Education, the school system's maintenance and operations team have implemented several energy conversation activities, including system-wide set points for room temperature control - for both occupied and unoccupied areas in the schools, and turning off exterior lighting after certain hours. Simply reducing the HVAC occupied hours by two daily has decreased 12,480 energy hours.

Another conservation measure is disconnecting the electrical meters to the modular classrooms that are not in use, which provides a base savings of $12.50 per meter monthly. Also, working with Snapping Shoals EMC to have them notify the system that peak load may be measured on a certain day and time allows the maintenance and operations staff to shut down all air handlers during that measurement time period.

The steps taken to decrease the energy bills to the NCSS has show a savings of $34,767 in Fiscal Year 2011, and $88,840, thus far, in FY12, with a savings total of $123,607. This is with the 12 percent increase in square footage in the NCSS during the last year.