New Solar Panels Harness Energy at School & Teach Students Valuable Lessons

SAN DIEGO - July 28, 2016 - PRLog -- Lifetime Montessori School (LMS) has become one of the first schools in the area to place solar panels on its roof to cut energy costs.

Equally as important, the new panels are a welcome add-on component to teaching our children about science, technology and the environment.

How Solar Panels Became a Reality for This Inland School

The new solar panels are the outgrowth of the school's efforts to cut gas and electric costs for at least the next decade.

In 2015, San Diego Gas & Electric alerted Lifetime Montessori that the school's energy demand was too high and rates would soon triple. Immediately, lighting, laundry and dishwasher use was cut while air conditioning was staggered throughout the building—all via a monitoring website. But, the writing was on the wall—get in front of the problem to be proactive.

So, Lifetime Montessori hired a solar company who helped obtain approval with the City of San Diego. Seventy-two solar panels were then constructed on the roof and purchased outright. As a result, the school no longer receives a utility bill since usage is lower than the energy created on the roof.

Within a decade, the solar panels will pay for themselves while the school sidesteps expected rate increases. And, at some point, the school may opt to install solar glass—a pane that captures sunlight via a transparent solar cell—once that new technology becomes available.

Teaching Our Students About Energy Self-Sufficiency

Happily, a new tool has also been created--teaching students how the energy of the sun works and how we all must work together to take care of the environment.

One of Dr. Maria Montessori's teachings concerns the topic of photosynthesis—how plants convert light energy into chemical energy. Students learn that each leaf is like a factory with water, sunlight and soil working together and releasing oxygen into the air.

The 21st Century application of this Montessori Method topic is how Lifetime's teachers discuss renewable energy (sun, wind, water) and pollution (coal, wood and nuclear energy) as discussion points to combat climate change.

At Lifetime, our mission is teaching young, gifted students how to think and how to think independently via individualized learning. Thus, we are preparing students for their individual future as well as our future at large. At Lifetime Montessori, we are in the education and inspiration business. Join us, won't you?

Lifetime Montessori School is located near the I-15 corridor that serves the Del Sur, Carmel Valley, 4S Ranch, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Santa Fe and Rancho Penasquitos communities. Celebrating its 10th Anniversary, the school serves 170 students aged eighteen months through Grade 4 via toddler, preschool and elementary divisions.

Lifetime Montessori is a reasonably priced private school that acts as an alternative to public, parochial and gilded high-priced private schools in San Diego County. The school was recently recognized as one of San Diego's 'Three Best Preschools.'

Visitwww.lifetimemontessorischool.com/free-tours to see one of San Diego's top private schools in action.