Khao Pitak School Hua Hin Wins Energy-Saving Award

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Khao Pitak School Hua Hin Wins Energy-Saving Award

HUA HIN:-- Khao Pitak Hua Hin Municipal School has won first prize for its energy-saving scheme.

The award, including a trophy and 250,000 Baht in cash, was given to the Mayor of Hua Hin on 5th June 2014.

The school won the award after participating in the project: “Power of Thinking Changes the World”, organised by the Ministry of Energy, Thailand. According to the Director of Khao Pitak School Dr. Wirat Maneepruek, the Energy Ministry invited 8,000 municipal schools throughout Thailand to show their initiative with an energy-saving scheme at a Provincial level for completion by 4th June 2014. Selected by the hosting committee, the school took part in the final competition and won the first prize along with 4 other municipal schools which were also prize winners. Dr. Wirat said the project that the school proposed in the competition aimed to reduce using electricity usage with a model for their teachers to implement and for students to follow.

For example, all light bulbs are to be cleaned before use, electric fans in classrooms can be turned on only when there is teaching in progress and air conditioners will be used only when there is a meeting or an important event.

Not only is the model used widely at the school, but teachers and students also employ it at homes, so that the energy-saving scheme is extended from inside to outside the school’s premises, added Dr. Wirat. “Previously, we had to pay 18,000 to 20,000 Baht a month for electricity at school. Then we introduced this energy-saving model at the beginning of 2013 to save the unnecessary use of electrical appliances. The school has 20 classrooms, each of which has 4 electric fans. We then encouraged teachers to use only 1 electric fan for each of the classroom together with reducing the use of other electric appliances.

The school has saved around 10,000 THB per month since then. If all 8,000 municipal schools in Thailand use the simple energy-saving model introduced by the 5 award-winning schools, over 100 million THB a month can be saved,” commented Dr. Wirat. The trophy and the cash given to the Hua Hin Mayor were returned to the school for development projects.

Pleased with the award that Khao Pitak Hua Hin received, the mayor of Hua Hin Mr. Nopporn Wutthikul said that he would ask 7 other municipal schools here to use the energy-saving model together with all offices at the Hua Hin Municipality.

Subsequently, the schools’administrators and municipal officers will consider how much expenses they have to pay for the electricity per month and how much money they can save once the model is used in practice.

-- Hua Hin Today 2014-07-07