Energy savings upgrades at Knox Community Schools have led to over $58,000 in NIPSCO rebates. Kirby Dipert with Lockheed Martin Energy, which administers NIPSCO’s energy efficiency programs, presented a check during Tuesday’s school board meeting.
Dipert explained that the rebates were actually the result of eight separate projects. “The culmination of the eight projects results in the therm savings of 9,285 therms a year – that’s a unit of gas volume – and 637,827 kilowatt hours a year, which is your use,” he said. “So that’s how much you’ve avoided by installing all of this stuff.”
Superintendent Dr. William Reichhart thanked NIPSCO and Lockheed Martin on behalf of the school corporation. “Not only do we get the rebates back, but we also get the energy savings going forward,” he noted. “So it’s really a double win for our school district.”
As for what Knox Schools will do with that money, Reichhart said he’s looking at installing an electronic message board similar to the one the City of Knox recently added along U.S. 35. “It would be about the same size but it would be two-sided and it would sit, possibly, out here by the tennis courts at the corner of Redskin Trail and Main, I guess that would be,” he said. “But the cost of this sign is around $45,000, probably, by the time we get electricity hooked up to it, but if we could use something like this, it’s not taxpayers’ dollars paying for this, and it might be a nice way of taking this money and using it forward in a good way.”
He presented a rendering of the proposed sign to the school board, but added that he might ask the schools’ graphics department to see if they could come up with a better design.
