The large windows throughout Scarborough High School were designed to be aesthetically pleasing, but are also one of many carefully planned ways the school saves on its energy bill.

On Wednesday, the Maine Public Utilities Commission presented the high school with a $100,000 grant recognizing the school for its energy efficiency. By designing the building with courtyards and big windows, interior offices and classrooms receive natural light, meaning less electricity used throughout the day.

There are also motion sensors in all the rooms to keep lights on only when people are in the room. Forget to turn off a light after you leave, and they turn off automatically a few minutes later. Carbon dioxide sensors in the gym detect how many people are using it so it isn’t always ventilated as if there were a full-sized crowd. Fans retrieve heat from stale air, water faucets are automatic and everything can be monitored and controlled from a computer.

The grant comes from the Efficiency Maine High Performance School Program, which began working with the high school when it was still in the planning stages three years ago. According to Commissioner Kurt Adams, the school is projected to save about $52,000 a year.

“That’s an awful lot of money for a school district to put back into its classrooms as opposed to into the pockets of energy companies,” said Adams. While a large part of the program’s goal is to save schools money, it also lessens the impact on the environment. The systems in the school prevent about 323 tons of carbon dioxide from entering the air, said Adams, which is like taking 56 cars of the road.

“Energy efficiency is possibly the biggest tool against emissions,” said Adams.

The $100,000 grant is to pay for equipment installation and design costs for all of the energy saving methods the school uses. The program helps with these costs as an incentive to make schools more efficient. Grants cannot exceed $100,000, and Scarborough is the first district to receive the full amount. The potential to save a significant amount of money also helps pay back any extra costs installing energy efficient equipment requires, said Adams.

Norm Justice, the schools facilities manager, has been involved with designing the energy saving methods from the very beginning; from filling out paper work to touring the finished building as the Public Utilities Commission checked to make sure everything was installed. Now he monitors everything, and will soon even be able to access the systems from his home computer.

“In our original vision we wanted an energy efficient building,” said Justice. The High Performance program fit perfectly with what they wanted the school to be, he added.

Now, said Justice, some of the biggest energy savers are the light sensors and ability to control the fans in the heating and ventilation system.

“It’s almost like going into idle mode rather than revving your engine all the time,” said Justice. Depending on how many people are in the building and where, the fans can be slowed or turned up, saving both unnecessary heat and energy.

For High School Principal Patricia Conant, saving money and being environmentally friendly are both positive things, but they also help teach students the importance of energy efficiency.

“This all reminds kids about conserving energy,” said Conant. “It’s been a great teaching tool. I think this is a nice thing to expose kids to at this age.”

Courtyards with large windows help to light interior offices and classrooms. More natural light means a more pleasant workspace and saved electricity.Fans that circulate air and heat can be slowed or sped up depending on how many people are in the building, which helps save on both power and heating. Also, there are heat recovery wheels that can recapture heat from stale air. Scarborough High School is the first school to receive the full $100,000 grant from the Public Utilities Commission for being an energy efficient building. It’s projected that the school could save about $52,000 a year in energy costs.