The schools superintendent dubbed her the Princess of Darkness. Co-workers have nicknamed her the Queen of Green. Just don't call Susan Warren a spendthrift.

The Freedom High School art and yoga teacher has an improbable second set of job duties these days: Identify situations in which the school district is wasting energy -- and eliminate them.

Warren, as the Liberty Union High School District's new education energy specialist, roams campuses looking for ways to save therms and kilowatts. She took on the part-time job in July as part of a four-year contract the district has signed with Energy Education Inc., a Texas-based company that specializes in helping school districts reduce their utility bills.

The business gets help from its clients' employees to achieve that goal, which it tackles by changing human behavior instead of buying energy-saving equipment, said Ed Graff, Energy Education's regional president of marketing for the western United States. But you can't force people to turn off the lights and air conditioning when they leave a room -- you have to train them -- and teachers have the communication skills to do that, Graff said.

Enter Warren, who cut back her teaching hours so that Graff's company can educate her in the basics of heating and cooling systems, lighting, plumbing and irrigation by having about two dozen experts from as far away as Florida take turns meeting with her.

Of course, helping employees develop new habits isn't the only approach Liberty Union is taking to energy conservation.

Solar panels have been heating Heritage High's swimming pool since the campus opened five years ago, and last week a photovoltaic panel mounted on a pole on the school's playing field was activated. The device will offset some of the school's energy consumption while science classes monitor when and how it generates electricity.

The school district also is designing a cogeneration facility for Freedom High that will be ready in about a year. The equipment will use natural gas to heat the swimming pool as well as turn water into steam for a turbine that generates electricity.

But it's this new emphasis on changing habits that has Warren excited. Armed with a notepad, cell phone and temperature gun that enables her to measure conditions of a room from outside a building by simply aiming the laser beam at a window, Warren spends 20 hours a week roaming all five campuses as well as district headquarters to conduct about a dozen energy audits.

The job has brought her to campuses as early as 6 a.m. and kept her there as late as 9:30 p.m. while she makes sure that lights are shut off in classrooms, offices and gymnasiums unless someone's in them. Referring to a checklist of 49 items, Warren inspects irrigation systems for broken sprinkler heads and weather stripping around doors and windows.

This time of year, she's also looking for air conditioners running when they shouldn't be, and in a few weeks she'll be doing the same for heating systems. Bathroom checks have exposed exhaust fans running after hours; visits to the district's administration offices have revealed computers, monitors and printers left on at night. Warren even checks the motion-detection sensors in soda machines to ensure that the lights illuminating the displays are off when there's no one around.

When Warren finds waste, she fills out a form alerting the principal and the district's maintenance department to a problem.

It's not intended to be punitive, she said, noting that she's planning to have her art students design a logo for the gentle reminders and notes of appreciation she'll be sticking on desks or computers when she catches someone conserving energy.

Liberty Union will be paying $158,000 annually for the training as well as upward of $10,000 on software that will enable it to measure how much energy it conserves.

Graff said the investment is a no-brainer because the company is guaranteeing that the district will save at least that sum each year on its utility bills. Last year's water, gas and electricity bills came to $1.54 million. In fact, projections not only have Liberty Union recovering the cost of the contract but saving $150,000 annually on top of that, Graff said.

It's also using the software to determine how much energy each school used in 2009-10 so that it can calculate its actual savings.

Wayne Reeves, the district's director of project development, is among those Warren has in her sights. "I'm changing my ways now," he said, noting that he used to forget to flip the switch before heading home.

contracostatimes.com