Brihas Sarathy

On Brihas Sarathy’s tour of a Vancouver elementary school, he noticed a thermostat turned up in an empty room, inefficient light bulbs and an un-insulated attic.

“And while we were up in the attic, we noticed the roof was leaking,” said Sarathy. “The building engineer was happy to know about that!”

The purpose of Sarathy’s tour was to conduct an energy audit for the Vancouver School Board as part of UBC’s Master of Engineering in Clean Energy and Community Service Learning programs. Sarathy and a classmate observed the lighting, heating and insulation in the school. Then they calculated the cost of the inefficiencies and their recommended improvements, and worked out the timeline for eventual savings.

“The energy audit makes the things we’re learning in the classroom more real,” said Sarathy. “If you can’t use what you learn, the tendency is you’re going to forget it more easily. And if you’re not using it, how useful is it?”

Sarathy likes to see knowledge put into practice. To get the elementary students excited about what he did and why it’s important, he put on a magic show and game show. The students were matched against each other in teams, racing to list all the energy efficient things they could do.

“Kids can be really creative,” said Sarathy. “And they’re the ones that will remind their teachers and parents to turn down the thermostat. Adults have a lot on their minds and just forget. It’s not a habit they’ve formed yet.”

Sarathy hopes the elementary school will implement his recommendations. “If something pays back in two years or less, it’s definitely worth it,” he said.