A SECONDARY school has shaved £14,000 off its energy bills by cutting massive inefficiencies.

Cheney School in Headington is now using 16 per cent less electricity and 14 per cent less gas with tricks as simple as turning equipment off at the end of the day.

The savings are largely thanks to Cheney's new energy guru, Chris Honey, who joined the CSAT trust, which runs the school, last summer as head of estates.

Mr Honey said he only had to look at energy metres to cut some consumption overnight.

He also recruited the help of energy consultant Wendy Cheeseman to seek out further savings opportunities.

The pair started by looking at energy use overnight and in holidays when the school is empty.

Mr Honey said: "We found that our boilers were not as well controlled as they could be.

"We found instances where the controls had failed and the boilers were on but our control system said they were off.

"We could only have known this by looking at the data from the meter.

"For a very small outlay there has been terrific financial gain."

The information Mr Honey and Ms Cheeseman uncovered has also been used as the basis for recommending and investing in energy-reduction schemes.

Ms Cheeseman said: "To reduce electricity, schools often think they need to pay for projects such as LED lighting.

"However, by going back to basics and checking all lights and equipment that should be off actually is off can save 15 to 20 per cent, often for no outlay.

"Savings can then be used to fund projects as a next step."

Following data analysis, the school set energy-saving targets for winter and summer and exceeded both.

Mr Honey said: "It is easy to lose the focus in energy as other projects make demands on my time, but Wendy and I meet monthly which keeps us focused and on track so we can see trends on a day by day basis if needed.

"I would recommend to any school looking to cut costs to interrogate their meter data and look again at the simple steps of ‘switch off and save’ and then check that this happens."

With the money saved, the school has invested in electrical sub-meters across all of its estate meaning Mr Honey can see consumption on a building-by-building basis.

The school is hoping it may be able to save a further £10,000 on bills by involving staff and students.