School Joins Frontlines of Energy Efficiency with Absorption Chiller

It's not every day the more industrial inner workings of a school district are featured on the front page of TreeHugger, but if you’re looking for a school that’s on the cutting edge of energy conservation and making smart use of taxpayer dollars look no further than Branford High School in Connecticut.

To control heating and cooling costs they’ve implemented a device called an absorption chiller that runs off of the hot exhaust from the four natural gas powered micro-turbines used to create their electricity on-site. And the results are terrific. Achieving energy efficiency rates of 80-90% where the nationwide average from more traditional methods is closer to 33%.

Of course the planet, taxpayers and students all gain something big in the process. Because they’ll be reducing the school’s carbon footprint by 48 metric tons each year while cutting costs at the same time.

And that means they'll be able to put more funds into the education of students rather than their energy bill in the coming school years while doing their part to help stop global warming in the process.