Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
DUGWAY, Tooele County — From lighting to temperature control, Dugway Schools in Tooele County has made a special effort to stay energy efficient — for a lower price.
Dugway Schools is the education facility for most of the children who live at Dugway Proving Ground, a U.S. Army base. The school houses students from kindergarten to high school and has been operating since 1953, according to the school's website.
Dugway is the only school in TCSD to use geothermal energy to heat and cool the entire building. DHS also has 100 percent LED lighting, making it a very energy efficient building. #teamtcsd#funfactfridaypic.twitter.com/l6mWGhnb2g
— Tooele Schools (@tooeleschools) November 16, 2018
A new building for the school was built in early 2016 with new ideas for energy conservation, including geothermal heating and cooling — essentially energy originated from the heat within the Earth.
“The heat pump system takes advantage of the constant temperature of the Earth and extracts heat from the ground by circulating a water-glycol mix through a closed piping system in the ground,” according to Steve West, a construction manager for the Tooele County School District.
Jeff Wyatt, principal of Dugway Schools, said geothermal energy is a little more costly but overall effective for the school.
“It’s my understanding that it’s a little more money up front to put it in, but over time it saves a lot of money,” Wyatt said. “For example, the two buildings that this building replaced, we had to use heating oil, which was costing thousands and thousands of dollars. We no longer have to purchase that.”
Dugway Schools used geothermal heating and cooling due to the location of the school. The area actually has no natural gas in the area, according to Marie Denson, the school district's communications director.
“So what’s unique about Dugway is since there’s no natural gas out there, they did geothermal heating,” Denson said. “Otherwise, they’d be running it off propane and that’s more expensive. Anytime they build a new school, they do a cost analysis and see what systems to put in. If there’s a (payback), then they’ll put that in.”
Another key factor in the energy efficiency in Dugway is its LED lighting. West said the LED lighting at Dugway Schools is able to adjust itself based on sunlight exposure. The intensity will decrease as sunlight increases and vice versa.
Wyatt said LED lighting is actually less expensive than regular fluorescent lighting and more energy efficient — which is why 100 percent of the lighting at Dugway Schools is LED.
The new building for the school was also built in a way that would save heating and cooling costs, Wyatt said.
“Part of it is that we have bullet resistant glass and blast-resistant walls, which are thicker,” Wyatt said. “That would help with the heating and cooling costs. We have a backup boiler just in case the temperature drops way, way down and the geothermal can’t heat it up enough. But to my knowledge, it’s never been used.”
If it’s so easy and inexpensive for Dugway to be energy efficient, why haven’t other schools in the Tooele School District or even the state of Utah made changes like these?
Denson said it's completely dependent on the county school districts and cost-effectiveness. For example, the Tooele County School District was planning on using geothermal energy for a tentative new school, but a commissioning agent said it’s not cost-effective for the area.
“We want to run these schools for 30 to 50 years, and if we haven’t paid off the energy efficiency, then it’s not really cost-effective,” Denson said.
As for energy conservation efforts throughout the rest of the state, West said he thinks LED lighting will become the new standard for schools throughout Utah.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct information from Steve West that the reporter incorrectly summarized. The article initially attributed him as saying the energy comes from radioactive decaying of minerals and solar energy. It has been updated to this quote: “The heat pump system takes advantage of the constant temperature of the Earth and extracts heat from the ground by circulating a water-glycol mix through a closed piping system in the ground.”
