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Sawau District School  (1727 Suva)

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About

The school on Beqa Island has 5 teachers delivering classes for 87 students from kindergarten to year 8.

Prior to solar, the school used a portable generator for limited electricity during the day. Teachers’ homes, hostels and accommodation for boarders' families (rostered weekly to cook for the boarders) used a combination of small portable solar, kerosene lanterns or small generators. The new solar system provides 24-hour power to all the facilities and gives the school the valued option of night study.

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

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

Donor - anonymous

As always a big thank you to our business partners - click/tap for details.
Images and Videos
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
Th school has a 3kva generator that is used two days per week and consumes approximately 90 litres of fuel per month (includes contribution to boat fuel to collect the fuel from the mainland) So the solar system will save in the order of FJD300 per month that can be diverted to education resources. (fuel consumption and costs will be confirmed/clarified at the time of installation).

Sawau District School

Annual school fuel saving (litres) (1)

1,080

Annual fuel saving 5 teachers' homes getting solar (litres) (2)

250

Annual cartage saving (litres) (3)

162

Total annual fuel saving (litres) (4)

1,492

Fuel saving over 30 years (litres)

44,760

Annual CO2 saving (kgs)

3,804

CO2 saving over 30 years (kgs)

114,138

Annual AUD saving (8)

$ 3,984

Annual USD saving

$ 2,709

Annual FJD saving

$ 5,976

30 yrs AUD saving

$ 119,520

30 yrs USD saving

$ 81,270

30 yrs FJD saving

$ 179,280

Total of All It's Time Solar Schools

Total annual school fuel saving (litres)

21,580

Total annual fuel saving 91 teachers' homes getting solar (litres)

4,150

Total annual cartage saving (litres)

3,289

Total annual fuel saving (litres) (4)

29,019

Total fuel saving over 30 years (litres)

870,570

Total annual CO2 saving (kgs)

73,991

Total CO2 saving over 30 years (kgs)

2,219,949

Total annual AUD saving (8)

$ 81,238

Total annual USD saving

$ 55,233

Total annual FJD saving

$ 121,857

Total 30 yrs AUD saving

$ 2,437,140

Total 30 yrs USD saving

$ 1,656,990

Total 30 yrs FJD saving

$ 3,655,710

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
10 June 2023
DC Coupled

Inverters

Inverter type

Victron MultiPlus-II/5000

Charge controller

Victron MPPT 250/85 & 150/35

Panels

Panel type

Jinko Tiger 415

Number of panels

16

Array (watts)

6640

Mountings

Mountings

Ground mounted

Brand

Clenergy Solar Terrace II

Batteries

Battery type

Simpliphi PHI 3.8 Lithium Ferro Phosphate

Number of batteries

6

Kilowatt hours

22.8

Batteries mounted

Simpliphi Boss 6 Cabinet

General electrical works

There are three pillar boxes at the school that were used to accept power from a village generator (was only for a few hours at night, but that generator failed 7 years ago). On inspection this distribution system, after a few repairs, is up to standard and is acceptable to leave in place. Although at the buildings, the distribution boards all needed replacement and new internal wiring was installed in all classrooms, hostels, teachers' homes and facilities for the families that stay during the week to cook for the boarders.

4 amp breakers are installed into the teachers' homes - this limits appliances to a maximum 960 watts and capacity to use modest sized electrical appliances, but not electric cook tops etc. That power limiting strategy means effective use of a reasonably sized school solar system and all in the school community are very happy to have this balanced level of 24-hour power supply.

Partners

Solar contractor

Solar Fiji

General electric works constractor

Solar Fiji

Contacts
Document
Status First Name Last Name Position Phone Email FB Note Edited
Active Jone Ledua School Treasurer 2082257 Sep 25
Active Josefa Cegucegu School Manager 9576323 Sep 25
Active Rusila Rabosea Teacher 9237945 rrabosea@hotmail.com Sep 25
Active Radilaite Turaga Teacher 8980268 radilaiteturaga@gmail.com Sep 25
Active Saula Musuka Teacher 8070269 saulamusuka51@gmail.com Sep 25
Active Viliame Buatavatava Head of school 9401861 vbuatavatava@gmail.com Sep 25
Active Timoci Turagaluvu Teacher 9721902 tnturagaluvu@gmail.com Sep 25
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Docs & Links
Click to open important standard documents and links for all schools
Line diagram (General ... 17/12/2023)
Agreement signed (Commitments ... 13/05/2023)
Data entry instructions (Reporting ... 13/05/2023)
Energy Efficiency Poster (Resources ... 15/03/2023)
Off Me sticker artwork If needing more stickers for switches, contact Its Time Foundation and we will supply a new sheet of 70mm x 20mm stickers. (Resources ... 15/03/2023)
School OHS Policy (Policy etc. ... 15/03/2023)
Inverter data collections instructions Some installations my have remote monitoring, but it remains a requirement for the school to collect data, please keep up to date. (Reporting ... 15/03/2023)
Child Protection Policy (Policy etc. ... 15/03/2023)
Inverter data entry page for printing (Reporting ... 15/03/2023)
Works & Maintenance
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Site QC Rob AtVESS admin@iitime.org 123 Edit Delete
Site QC Vasiti Talakubu vesspower@gmail.com +679 906 9151 Edit Delete
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Inspector Rob Edwards rob.edwards@itstime.org.au +61 413734916 Wats App Edit Delete
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