Hero photograph
LPHS site manager Dave Penny
 
Photo by Otago Daily Times

Environmentally Friendly School

Arnika Hazelwood —

Our school thinks our change to wood pellets is worth it for the environment.

The Otago Daily Times published an article in August looking at Otago schools and their heating systems.  Logan Park decided to change to a less polluting  system in 2011.  Other schools are now investigating changing. 

''Half of Dunedin knows you could see Logan Park in the morning, chucking blue smoke down the valley towards town, and now people go past and you can't tell if anything is coming out of our chimney," says Deputy Principal Peter Hills. 
''It's a good outcome in terms of the emissions.''

The cost of a new boiler at the time of converting was about $500,000, whereas a conversion of the boiler to wood pellets was only about $100,000 over three or four years, and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) funded half of the cost.

''So it was quite an attractive proposition to shift,'' Mr Hills said.
''Logan Park High School is green and environmentally friendly - [coal] was just not the right look for us.''

The school paid $120,000 for pellets in 2011, but the cost decreased to about $93,000 last year because the wood pellet market has become more competitive and lower prices could be negotiated, he said. The school had also found ways to maximise the boiler's efficiency.