Argonia USD 359

Argonia USD 359 is a small rural school district located 40 miles southwest of Wichita, KS. The district has two schools: Argonia Elementary houses preschool through fifth grade and Argonia High School houses grades six through twelve. Their schools have a strong academic background, successful sports programs, and an extremely supportive community.

In early 2017, Argonia issued an RFP in order to select a firm to assist the district in analyzing and implementing high performance, energy-efficiency improvements, while optimizing building operations and on-going maintenance of equipment and systems. The district selected Energy Solutions Professionals (ESP) as a result of the competitive process.

ESP worked with the district to develop and implement a plan that would allow for $680,000 of energy-saving improvments to be made that could be paid for over time with energy and operational savings.

The new equipment and technology includes LED lighting, wifi connected programmable thermostats, expansion of the electronic building controls, new high-efficiency condensing-style furnaces, a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system that provides cooling in the elementary school, destratification fans in the gymnasiums, and a new heating and air-conditioning unit for the elementary school gym.

ESP also provided customized conservation training and energy guidelines to staff, students and administration in order to build awareness throughout the district about how each individual can contribute to saving energy at school, and at home.

Argonia is saving over $31,000 anually on utility and operating costs. The improved building comfort has had a positive impact on teaching and learning, and everyone at the district is able to contribute to ongoing savings and conservation efforts.