Rolf Bartel's Visit 2016 (EVS Foundation)
Summers
in JLSS are the time for campus development and repair projects, and
Summer 2015 was no exception. The most important project was the Energy
Project (central heating) stage 2. The original plans prepared by energy
expert, Rolf Bartel, were amended to meet the urgent needs of the
school. Stage 2 consisted of modernizing the central heating systems of
BBH2 (Boys Boarding Home 2) and BBH3 and the office and kindergarten
houses. Mr. Bartel was kindly sent from Weiblingen - Germany by the EVS
Foundation, which is funding this project, to oversee the work.
The amended plan was to connect the central heating systems to one
energy room. As the new kindergarten center was under execution to meet
the needs of the school and the Single Mothers' Program, stage 2 also
included connecting the new kindergarten center to the energy room of
the main office house. The additional charges resulting from this
amendment of the project were taken form the maintenance budget. The
savings in diesel bills covered these extra charges by the end of the
year.
The huge savings are the result of the plan prepared by Mr. Bartel.
It incorporated the solar water heating panels into the new energy
systems. They are controlled by an intelligent control unit,
that diverts the energy during the day to the domestic hot-water tanks
and the hot water storage tanks through various stages that utilize
energy to maximum efficiency. This control unit was kindly brought from
Germany by Mr. Bartel along with many other items that were needed for
the project. The savings were also the result of using half the number
of boilers (2 instead of 4), and utilizing the new ones to replace the
old units that wasted huge amounts of diesel.
The project was huge. Specially insulated pipes were needed to
connect BBH2 to BBH3 and the main-office house to the Kindergarten
center. A specialized company from Beirut was contracted to do this job.
The
efficient boiler that was previously used in the guesthouse had to be
dismantled and moved to BBH3 to supply energy for BBH2 and BBH3. The
energy room in BBH3 had to be completely reconstructed after removing
all the old inefficient systems.
The solar panels were also relocated from the roof of BBH3 to a new
location along the school parking to benefit from maximum sunshine due
to their new optimum orientation.
The work was endless. It extended long after the start of the
academic year. The project was only completed in January 2016. It was time for
Rolf to come from Germany to inspect the newly installed systems, to
correct mistakes in construction, and to tune them to maximum
efficiency.
Mr. Bartel came to Schneller School from the 21st till the 28th of
February 2016. He worked tirelessly, day and night, until he got all
systems running efficiently. He had to work to the late hours of the
last day. By that time JLSS had modern efficient systems in all
those areas. This wonderful achievement will save enormous amounts of
energy indefinitely through the coming years.
We express our sincere gratitude to the EVS Foundation and to Mr.
Rolf Bartel for this additional achievement in JLSS.
We highly appreciate the wonderful commitment of Mr. Bartel and his
expertise. The efficient systems he designed reduced the heating
expenditure of the school and brought not only adequate heating but
additional heating hours to the boarding homes of young children.
Vielen Dank EVS Stiftung und Herr Bartel!