Creative cooperation between a Moscow student and village administration led to energy efficiency for a dacha village

Moscow schoolchildren of the “Gazprom school” general education private institution have been actively participating in the SPARE program since 2016. Teachers Averina E. Yu. and Puzanova A. Yu. enthusiastically supported the activities of schoolchildren and their families, residents of the micro district on energy conservation and resource conservation. School administrators, eco-advisers, and members of school Energy Brigades joined their efforts to compile and develop activity on the Climate Plan. Students of all classes are involved in the implementation of individual and collective activities not only during school hours, but also in the summer and during holidays.

The Covid-19 pandemic in the summer of 2020 led to an increased interest among urban residents in long-term living in rural areas, when more and more Moscow families spent several months at their Russian dachas. Dacha settlements and garden associations have not only private lighting inside houses, their outbuildings, and yards, but also general lighting of streets, playgrounds, and other public areas. Very often, the common areas are still illuminated "the old-fashioned way," with incandescent lamps, a type of lighting that is very energy inefficient and financially costly. Expenses for all fall on the shoulders of the vacationers.

A dacha owned by the Andreev family is located on the territory of the garden association "Mayak-1" of the Pushkinsky district of the Moscow region. The Andreev’s daughter, Sofia, a tenth-grade student of the “Gazprom school,” decided to apply in practice her theoretical knowledge of the SPARE program. Sofia’s project focused on the use of various lamps in the village and on neighboring electric poles.

Sofia Andreev toured the entire dacha village in the evening and made a map of the placement and different types of lamps used. Next, she met with the chairman of the board of the "Mayak-1" Grinev S. A. The idea of a student conducting a full energy audit of public places of the garden association interested the members of the board. To facilitate the project, Grinev S. A. provided Sofia with materials detailing the history of energy consumption over the past 15 years. These tables included data on the years and the directions of total energy consumption: street lighting (41 lamps), lighting and heating of the gatehouse, and powering of the water pump. Electricity consumption by homeowners for the lighting and heating of their private houses was not taken into account.

“Mayak-1” has existed since 1983 in the village of Vasilevo, Pushkinsky district of the Moscow region. The territory of the “Mayak-1” occupies 5, 80 hectares, including 75 garden plots, and common areas comprised of a recreation area, public areas, streets, drainage ditches, sheds, a fire-fighting reservoir, a gas-cylinder warehouse, a checkpoint, and a gatehouse.

Sofia Andreev learned that the administration of the garden village began keeping track of electricity usage in the horticultural association in 2005. She also learned that many gardeners owed payment for electricity used in public places in the village and that the village faced the threat of a power outage. A commission of gardeners gathered records of electricity consumption, which they divided into several categories:

- consumption by gardeners (lighting and heating of garden houses and other buildings);

- expenses for street lighting (41 lamps);

- lighting and heating of the gatehouse;

- electric power of the water pump.

Sofia analyzed the administration’s effort to replace the lamps with energy-saving ones after the incandescent lamps burned out. Different types of lamps were used for replacement: energy-saving and LED. Until 2007, incandescent lamps were used to illuminate the streets and the gatehouse in the garden association. In 2007, replacement with DRL 250(8)-1 lamps (mercury arc lamps) and energy-saving Foton-lighting lamps began. In 2013, all the SNT was illuminated by these lamps. In 2014, replacement of DRL and Foton-lighting lamps with Camelion Led Ultra LED lamps was initiated. By 2018, the entire village was illuminated by these lamps. Unfortunately, some types of burned-out energy-saving lamps create particularly hazardous waste. Until 2008 they were stored in a warehouse in the village to later be sent to the reception point of the IKEA store.

The student researcher Sofia Andreev collected data on power indicators, the type of base, the size of the luminous flux, service life, cost, environmental friendliness (e.g., the need for special disposal) and the energy efficiency class of each type of lamp. Her mathematical calculations, tables, and analysis showed that Camelion Led Ultra LED lamps belong to the highest energy efficiency class A+ and do not require disposal as hazardous waste. Using these lamps to illuminate the garden is much more energy efficient and cost efficient. Even 5–45(%) replacement of lamps with LED lamps of this type for lighting the SNT "Mayak-1" of the Pushkinsky district of the Moscow region from 2005 to 2018 helped to reduce electricity costs in the village by up to 4.2 times, and favorably affects climate conservation.

Sofia Andreev used the textbook formulas of the SPARE program and calculated that this process helped to reduce the financial costs of lighting by 5.2 times and also prevented 2531.6 m3 of greenhouse gas CO2 from being released into the atmosphere. She presented her calculations in leaflets that she distributed at a meeting of members of the garden association, noting the mutually beneficial partnership with the administration.

It is important to note that the data and proposals from Sofia Andreev’s research can be replicated and successfully used in all garden and suburban areas, as well as in rural settlements.

Authors:

Zhirina L. S., Dr. in Biology

Averina E. Yu., teacher of mathematics;

Puzanova A. Yu., teacher-organizer of environmental education

General education private institution "Gazprom school"

Translators: Betsy Toll and Karen Watson, volunteers, USA