When energy is generated to meet the needs of your school, fossil fuels are burned. Combustion produces exhaust gases that pollute the atmosphere. The result of this air pollution is the so-called "greenhouse effect" and finally the slow but steady rise in global temperature.

Global warming is causing ice at the North and South Poles to melt! This means that the more energy is produced, the greater the damage to the environment and the faster the ice will melt.

The heating system, the lights, the fans, the projector that the teacher brings, the computers in the teachers' offices and everything else connected to every socket in every room of your school (like a room shown below), need energy to work.

Most devices continue to consume power even when they are not in use or you do not need them. The energy we consume at school costs and most of the time pollutes our environment. For this purpose we must consume energy carefully!

Remember to turn off or unplug appliances when not in use. Also, when charging a device such as a tablet, a mobile phone or an electric skate, you should unplug it as soon as it is completed, since leaving it in connection with the charger consumes extra energy and can cause problem in the device's battery.

At your school most of the used energy is generated by burning fossil fuels such as coal and diesel. The energy consumed in your school is mainly electricity and diesel for heating! However, both electricity and diesel are mainly based on fossil fuels! Humans use huge plants and machines to drill the earth to find these fossil fuels.

Then, these fossil fuels are burned to produce the energy needed in our school. From this combustion the environment is further polluted. So, you understand how bad the production of energy that comes from fossil fuels and that we consume does. Therefore, we should use it without waste and save energy as much as we can. Oh, and something else very important! fossil fuels are depleted and in a few years they will run out.

The system that heats us in winter consumes more energy by far. This is the heating system! A lot of energy is consumed to create hot water which will pass through the radiators to heat the classrooms (As shown in the next photo).

Lights are the second largest energy consumer in a school as each room has many light bulbs that consume electricity. There is still a lot of energy consumed to produce the hot water with which we wash our hands in the winter in the toilets and that is why we should not let it run unnecessarily because we waste energy. Also, in your school canteen there are appliances such as the oven and the toaster which consume a lot of energy in order to cook or heat the food. Large amounts of energy are also consumed in the computer lab as many computers and other devices such as printers, speakers and ventilation fans operate there.

Of course, there is a way and more than one. The most common way is to place devices called "energy meters" that measure how much energy is passing through them. So, we place an energy meter in front of a device that we want to measure to show us how much energy passes through it to go to the device that consumes energy. The energy meter has a screen like in the photo below that shows us the energy consumed.

This way we can find out how much energy we consume and see the difference every time we save energy. Still, we could observe which class saves the most energy in order to reward it.

If you always turn off the lights in your school classroom when you take a break or when you finish your classes, you will save significant energy estimated at 20%. Moreover, if you have the lights off during the classes hours when it is very sunny and you can see well, you can save an additional 30%.

This way you will participate in the total energy savings that your school always try to achieve. To be sure that this happens in the classroom, think and suggest in your classroom the curator every week to be responsible and to turn off the lights in your classroom. You can also suggest installing modern light bulbs (these are called LED bulbs) which consume less energy than any other lighting bulb. Discuss the above issues with your teacher and play an important role in saving energy in your school!

There are many simple ways to save energy such as not opening windows unnecessarily when the heating is on in winter. When you open the windows while the heating is on then you let the cold enter the classroom and cancel the heat offered by the radiator. So, energy is consumed unnecessarily since the heat produced by the heating system does not heat the space but the cold air that enters from the window. If you want to ventilate the class then do it only during the break time or use the ventilation fan if there is one.

In the summer months, however, when it is hot, the opposite should happen. When warming up, before opening the fan, try to open the windows and let a light breeze blow in the classroom that will cool you down. This way the fan will not have to work and consume energy. All this, always with the consent of your teacher. And because not everyone is as careful as you are, when you see a friend of yours forgetting, remind him or her to do the above.

Like oil, gas is a fossil fuel that we use to generate heat and heat school rooms. The difference, however, is that consuming the same energy as natural gas produces more heat. So, using a gas heating system saves energy.

Also, in the case of the natural gas system the school does not need to supply oil every month since the natural gas is connected to a pipe that comes out of the school directly to the heat generation system.

There are some devices called wind turbines that use the wind to generate electricity. They look like fans with large blades that are moved by the wind and thus produce energy. A wind turbine could be installed on the roof of your school to provide electricity to the building. This energy does not harm the environment as we take advantage of something that exists in nature without treatment, the wind. See in the photo below how it is a wind turbine.

The rubbish you throw at your school can somehow be turned into energy. All you and your classmates have to do is separate the rubbish you throw away. For this purpose, different bins are needed, one for each category of waste. The categories into which waste should be divided are recyclable paper, glass, aluminum and plastic, batteries, electrical appliances, food scraps and other rubbish.

With this separation you first help to recycle and not consume energy for the production of new raw materials and then offer garbage which will be used to produce energy.

The solar water heater is a device as shown in the photo below which takes energy from the sun to heat the water. It can be placed on the roof of your school in a place that will not be shaded so that the sun hits it throughout the day. This way the water will be heated without consuming energy continuously except for the times when it will have many clouds and the sun will not hit the solar water heater. This saves almost all the energy needed to heat the water for the canteen and the school toilets.

There is a system that can be placed on the roof of your school and taking energy from the sun creates electricity (electricity). It is called a photovoltaic system and is shown in the photo below.

This system can generate electricity for all school lights. This energy, as in the case of the wind turbine, is completely clean and does not harm the environment since it comes from the sun, which is a renewable energy source.

And yet, as strange as it sounds to you, the ground contains energy that we can use to warm ze winter. To do this, of course, requires a special installation called a geothermal heat pump and it is as shown in the photo below.

For this installation, holes will have to be made in the ground through which water pipes will pass in order to take advantage of the earth's heat, which is warmer in winter than the air. Using this heat, eventually the heating system will consume less energy to heat the school rooms.

It is very important to convey your views on the energy savings that can be made at your school to your parents. You guys are the best way to get adults to get involved in saving energy. Older people are not so easy to tell what you think and that is why we ask you to tell us.

Energy upgrade will help your school building become modern. So, if it happens, then there will be better comfort conditions in the classrooms as they will always be warm in winter but without consuming much energy. In addition, there will be supervisory tools that will show the improvement of the building and the energy savings to the parents and to any other visitor. This will help spreading the idea of energy upgrades in buildings.

In addition to your lessons, your teachers can add an energy saving lesson to your school. It will focus on the concept of "energy consumption" and the ways in which we can save energy through simple daily techniques and actions.

To achieve all this you will watch videos, express your concerns and questions and fully understand the topic through experiments, suggested by school textbooks and more. We understand that concepts such as "greenhouse effect", "energy footprint" and the like are quite complex and difficult for a student. On the other hand, it is so important that you children know all these problems that concern your future.