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!