logo
Case Study

£10,239 Wasted!

In an empty school that didn't know it was still on.

| LOCATION: A Northern England Secondary School, Lancashire

Client

Secondary School, NW UK

Industry

Education / Public Sector

Data Monitored 

Electricity · 15-min intervals

Waste Identified 

£10,239 / 9 months

The Nightmare

The school's energy bill kept arriving. The school kept paying it. Nobody knew how much of it was for an empty building running in the dark.

The legacy BMS was a black box. Schedules hadn't been properly audited in years. When sustainability reporting season came around, the Facilities Manager and Sustainability Director were left chasing spreadsheets and estimates - not evidence. Audit prep was weeks of pain, and the outputs still didn't hold up to scrutiny.

Meanwhile, the meters kept ticking. Plant was starting 1 hour 45 minutes before the first pupil arrived. Heating ran 3 hours 15 minutes after the last one left. Weekends weren't locked down. And nobody could prove any of it - because the data wasn't being captured, analysed, or acted on.

The Result:

18.1% of total electricity spend was pure waste. Not inefficiency. Waste. And it was invisible.

In Their Words

"We knew energy was being wasted. We just couldn't prove it, quantify it, or explain it to anyone who held the budget. EnergyLens gave us the first evidence pack that actually stood up. The schedule corrections alone will pay for the system — and we've got data we can take to governors, auditors, and grant panels."

Facilities Manager

Northern England Secondary School

Got Space Challenges?

See how DIREK can solve them.

The DIREK Fix

DIREK connected EnergyLens directly to the school's existing meter infrastructure — no BMS replacement, no rip-and-replace, no capital project. Fifteen-minute interval data fed straight into D-XPERT™, achieving 99.98% data completeness from day one.

No guesswork. No estimates. Decision-grade recommendations built on metered reality. D-XPERT pinpointed exactly what was running, when it shouldn't be, and what it was costing. Then it built a costed, measurable corrective plan:

Here's what the data exposed, and what DIREK told them to do about it:

1. Schedule drift exposed

Start-up at 06:30 vs target 08:15 - plant running 1h45m before it needed to

2. Shut-down overrun confirmed

Systems running to 18:15 vs target 15:00 - an extra 3h15m of avoidable cost every weekday

3. Weekend operation flagged

Baseline demand above the expected floor, indicating plant running without occupancy

4. Peak demand clustering identified

Top 1% demand intervals at 154.5 kW, due to plant starts; sequencing fix suggested.

5. SAS score established as a live KPI

current 82/100 vs 90+ target, with a 30-day recovery plan.

6. Audit-ready evidence pack generated

Findings based on metered data, ready for Ofsted, DfE, or grants.

The 30-day recovery plan didn't ask for capital spend. It asked for BMS schedule corrections, timer checks, and a shutdown protocol. Jobs that take days. Savings that last years.

Impact

£10,239 wasted in 9 months on out-of-hours operations, projected £13,652 annually.
8.79 tCO₂e avoidable (Scope 2) - 11.75 tCO₂e annualised if drift continues.
March was worst: £2,328 wasted, SAS score fell to 71 due to control failure.
August proved SAS can hit 92 when the school is shut down.
Audit-ready evidence: metered data, costed actions, measurable KPIs for funding bids or compliance.
18.1%
Of Electricity Wasted
£10,239 avoidable OOH cost
8.79t 
CO₂e Avoidable Emissions
Target: 90+ · Gap identified
82/100  
Schedule Adherence Score
Scope 2 · 9-month period

Control KPIs:

82/100 

SAS Current 

90+

SAS Target  

18.1%

OOH Waste Share  

< 15%  

OOH Target 

209.8 kW

Peak Demand  

154.5 kW

Top 1% Threshold 

Frequently Asked Questions

Learn More by User Questions

Related Case Studies

More success stories from DIREK clients

Space Optimisation

Leading Construction Company

As a leader in the UK construction sector, the company faced underutilised spaces, rising energy costs, and employee comfort ...

30% energy savings!
Space Optimisation

An International Consultancy firm

Stagnant HVAC Scheduling & Underutilised Spaces. A renowned leader in smart building design and consultancy firm, grappled with ...

£25k+ Saved Annually! 
Space Optimisation

Major UK Construction Firm

Ahead of a 2027 lease break, the Facilities and Workplace team faced a decision worth millions — and they had nothing but spread ...

£788k Saved Annually!

Start Your Sustainability Journey Today

Don't heat empty corridors. Let's prove it.

Schedule a demo with us & chat with one of our experts to explore how DIREK can meet your needs.

logo
The Technology Center, 40 Occam Rd, Guildford GU2 7YG
(+44) 020 7031 9947
(+44) 080 0031 8090
image-ftimage-ft

Products

DIREK-M Sensor

DIREK-D Edge Gateway

D-XPERT

SpaceLens

Solutions

Space Management

Energy Management

Environment Management

Resources

Case Studies

Get a Demo

HE Offers

Blog

Insights

News

Events

Careers

Company

Partnership

About Us

Contact Us

image-ftimage-ftimage-ftimage-ftimage-ftimage-ftimage-ft
© 2024 DIREK. All rights reserved.