A County Down primary school has become the first building in the UK to be awarded the top grade in a Government energy efficiency scheme. Victoria Primary School in Ballyhalbert achieved an 'A' in the Energy Performance Certificate Scheme, after it had been recently rebuilt.
All buildings will soon be required to have an energy performance certificate before they can be sold or rented, which explains how energy efficient a building is and the level of its carbon dioxide emissions. Elsewhere in the UK they are already a legal requirement, however the average grade awarded so far is an 'E' on an 'A-G' scale.
Principal Alison Campbell said the school's new £2 million building created a, "Great learning atmosphere for all and helps educate the children and, indeed the parents of how important it is to think about what impact we have on the environment." The school was designed and built by Dromore based contractors Graham. Project manager Keith Patrick said the school's range of environmentally friendly features will not only save the school money but have less of an impact on the environment.
These include, Northern Ireland's first stand alone biomass boiler in a new school, very high levels of insulation, rainwater harvesting to flush toilets and photovoltaic cells to generate electricity from sunlight.
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