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Rukua Raviravi Primary School  (1723 Suva)

About

Docs & Links

Specifications

Works & Maintenance

CO2 & $s

Contacts

Charge data

Term Reports

Procedures

About

Rukua Raviravi Primary School, on Beqa Island off the mid-west coast of Fiji’s main island Viti Levu. In 2023 has 7 teachers are providing classes for 179 students, in classes ranging from years 1 to 8.

The school has 5.5KVA generator that is used sparingly to power the photocopy machine, some older desktop computers, changing of teachers’ laptops and phones and lighting for occasional night activities. The school also has a three small panel solar system, but batteries having failed years ago. It does provide some power when the sun shines, but clearly not adequate to support computer classes and other power based activities at the school.

A three of the classrooms have adequate wiring that is to standard, but all other rooms have been rewired to replace the unsafe or absent wiring. Teachers's homes, hostels, dining room and ablutions block now also have new wiring, lights and power.

A donor also supplied a new LED data projector and 20 kgs of library books focused on sustainability.

School Role & Facilities
Students:
Teachers:
Classrooms:
Kindergarten:
Offices:
Library/computer area:
Teachers homes in the school grounds:
Boarders (live-in students):
Hostels (Boarding houses):
Dining rooms:
Date entered:
Project Funding

Donors - anonymous

Our school commits to have a group of students spend at least 15 minutes, most weeks, picking up plastics. So, we keep our small patch on the earth as free of plastic as possible - its a small action we do to protect marine and other wildlife. We hope all schools in the world join us in doing the same.

Carbon Dioxide and Financial Savings
Document
Our current information is that the generator uses 30 litres of fuel per month (FJD100 per month), but costs FJD150 per month to get the fuel from the mainland – when on site we will clarify that data (check back here after Easter)

Rukua Raviravi Primary School

Annual school fuel saving (litres) (1)

360

Annual fuel saving 7 teachers' homes getting solar (litres) (2)

350

Annual cartage saving (litres) (3)

54

Total annual fuel saving (litres) (4)

764

Fuel saving over 30 years (litres)

22,920

Annual CO2 saving (kgs)

1,948

CO2 saving over 30 years (kgs)

58,446

Annual AUD saving (8)

$ 2,328

Annual USD saving

$ 1,583

Annual FJD saving

$ 3,492

30 yrs AUD saving

$ 69,840

30 yrs USD saving

$ 47,490

30 yrs FJD saving

$ 104,760

Total of All It's Time Solar Schools

Total annual school fuel saving (litres)

21,580

Total annual fuel saving 94 teachers' homes getting solar (litres)

4,300

Total annual cartage saving (litres)

3,289

Total annual fuel saving (litres) (4)

29,169

Total fuel saving over 30 years (litres)

875,070

Total annual CO2 saving (kgs)

74,373

Total CO2 saving over 30 years (kgs)

2,231,424

Total annual AUD saving (8)

$ 82,738

Total annual USD saving

$ 56,253

Total annual FJD saving

$ 124,107

Total 30 yrs AUD saving

$ 2,482,140

Total 30 yrs USD saving

$ 1,687,590

Total 30 yrs FJD saving

$ 3,723,210

Assumptions

Fuel cost in the islands in AUD/litre (5)

2.00

Fuel cartage consideration % (3)

0.15

Annual fuel consumption per teacher's home wired (litres) (2)

50.00

Annual generator maintenance consideration AUD (6)

1500.00

CO2 produced per litre of fuel burned (kgs) (7)

2.55

AUD to USD conversion rate used

0.68

AUD to FJD conversion rate used

1.50

Notes

(1) This is the annual fuel consumption based on reporting from the school at the time of school survey and affirmed at the time of installation. It refers to direct fuel use by the school, not including teachers' homes.

(2) The fuel consumption of teachers' homes varies considerable between homes and over time. Their sources of energy varies from their own small generators to shared generators, still some use kerosene for lighting and some small solar (often failing) for lights and charging. Recently on Beqa Island two of the 7 households at one school were each using 10 litres of fuel per week and some were using very little. So, we have chosen the conservative underestimate of each household saving of 2 litres per week (approx. 5 kgs of CO2).

(3) Most schools have a cost to get fuel to the school - usually small boats and car/truck on the mainland. The costs vary from small amounts to some schools where the cartage cost is almost the same as the cost of the fuel itself. The cartage consideration (dollar and carbon cost) is a percentage of the total fuel consumption, because it varies widely from school to school we have chosen quite a conservative estimate.

(4) Includes cartage and teachers' home consumption estimate that therefore contribute to the total CO2 saving. But we do not include the teachers home in the financial saving - rather we just refer to the savings from the school generator.

(5) This is the current published diesel price in Fiji presented in AUD. Often the islands pay a higher price, but that is not factored in, so generally the price will be a small under estimation.

(6) Generators often require repairs and eventually replacement. That cost varies significantly from school to school, so a conservative value is applied to represent this component of cost/saving for all schools. It is not possible to calculate that accurately for every school, hence the estimate across all.

(7) Burning diesel produces CO2 at a rate of 2.68 kgs/litre, whereas petrol produces it at a rate of 2.31 kgs/litre. We have chosen 2.55 as the approximate for our calculations because there is more diesel used than petrol in the school generators.

(8) The fuel savings in the teachers' homes are not included in the calculation of financial savings for the school. Although teachers are asked to make a small contribution each term (FJD70) for their now 24-hour power and this goes to the school to buy more education resources.

Specifications
Document
05 June 2023

DC Coupled

Inverters

Inverter type

Victron MultiPlus-II/5000

Charge controller

Victron MPPT 250/85

Panels

Panel type

Jinko Tiger 415

Number of panels

15

Array (watts)

6225

Mountings

Mountings

Brand

Batteries

Battery type

Simpliphi PHI 3.8 Lithium Ferro Phosphate

Number of batteries

6

Kilowatt hours

22.5

Batteries mounted

Simpliphi Boss 6 Cabinet


General electrical works

The school was rewired to replace the unsafe or absent wiring. The teachers' homes have very old and dangerous wiring not to standard and not functional for many years. A new 400m of circuit now connects the 7 teachers’ homes, 2 hostels ablutions block and the dining room with new LED lighting and power outlets.

4 amp breakers are installed into the teachers' homes - this limits appliances to less than 1000 watts (so no electric cook tops etc., but capacity to use modest sized electrical appliances). That power limiting strategy means effective use of a reasonably sized school solar system and all in the community are very happy to have this level of 24-hour power supply.


Partners

Solar contractor

CBS Power Solutions

General electric works constractor

CBS Power Solutions


Contacts
Document
First Name Last Name Position Phone Email FB Note Edited
Note
Charge data
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Document

This data is currently only available to the school and admin.

  Event

Works & Maintenance
Document