Students save money, energy for West Branch school

An energy audit of West Branch High School revealed several areas in which the school could reduce energy usage and costs.

“I was surprised at how many opportunities there were at our school,” senior David Fischer, 18, says. “There were about 10 or 11 easy fixes that could save roughly $10,000 a year.”

Now that $10,000 in savings could translate into a $50,000 scholarship.

David, his sister Sarah Fischer, 15, and Justin Roth, who comprised the team known as T.E.A.M.S., are Iowa's high school state finalists of the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge. The national challenge encourages student teams to identify an energy-related issue that has local, national and global implications and provide a viable solution.

Justin, 15, said the idea of an energy audit stemmed from student comments at the beginning of the school year.

“There were discrepancies in classrooms, varying temperatures,” Justin, a freshman, said. “A lot of students complained about that.”

Working with their mentor, Hector Ibarra, a science teacher at West Branch Middle School, the team contacted Alliant Energy, who put them in touch with David Werner of Michaels Energy. Werner conducted the audit on a Saturday, with all team members in attendance.

The audit found that the school could make several updates and enhancements that would reduce energy consumption, including replacing outdated pneumatic thermostat HVAC systems with variable frequency drive systems, purchasing energy-efficient refrigerators, and installing occupancy sensors in the gym locker and storage rooms.

David, Sarah and Justin took their finding to the school board earlier this year.

“They were fairly open to us,” Sarah, a sophomore, says.

T.E.A.M.S. is working with the school district to get its ideas implemented. David said the school board asked the district to complete another energy audit to get a better understanding of the potential savings.

The students also shared their findings at a legislative energy summit and traveled to the state capitol to meet with legislators and the Iowa Department of Energy Independence. They are working with legislators to craft legislation that encourages energy audits of all public buildings and hope to further help others reduce their energy use.

This is the third year of the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge and the first year high school students were eligible to compete. Before this year, only elementary and middle school teams could compete.

Justin was a member of Team Dead Weight when a student at West Branch Middle School won the first challenge in 2009. Ibarra was the team's mentor.

“I look out and I see the adults doing the best they can to try and make the world perfect,” Justin says. “Sometimes they try too hard. Sometimes you need to consider the simple ideas, see things through the eyes of kids.”

“We want our project to show that even the simplest of ideas can have a big impact,” Sarah adds.

More than 1,200 high school students competed in the challenge's high school division. Working with a teacher or mentor, students were asked to create sustainable, reproducible, energy-related environmental improvements for global use.

T.E.A.M.S. is in the running for the grand prize of an equal share of a $50,000 scholarship and a chance to present their project at the United Nations.

This year's national winners will be announced on May 18.