As Brooklyn looks to take its school buildings off of the grid by going solar, school officials are touting smaller changes that have resulted in lower energy costs for the district.

Swapping out the old bulbs throughout the district’s campus for low energy LEDs has lowered monthly energy costs by $4,000.

Rather than contracting with a third party such as Eversource, which offers programs to upgrade lighting and other infrastructure to improve energy efficiency, the campus’s facilities director set to changing out each of the 5,000 bulbs in the school buildings in-house.

It’s why Brooklyn is already reaping the financial benefits. The utility takes a fee upfront to perform the service, but municipalities and other customers save on their electric bills in the long run.

“If we had entered into an agreement with an electricity company, we wouldn’t be saving this money right off of the bat, but we are,” said Superintendent of Schools Patricia Buell.

Buell said the district was able to make the change over several months on the cheap, securing the bulbs at a radically reduced rate, and using existing staff to make the swap.

The district will continue to save that $4,000 each month, resulting in a net savings of $48,000 per year.

“The town did agree and approved to purchase the solar (panels), and so the entire savings will be ours,” said Buell. “The town did agree that they’ll bond some of the money that we’ll have to pay (back), and then we’ll realize the full savings.”

The Board of Education will put out a Request for Proposals in the coming weeks for the solar project.

The district anticipates a $3.8 million savings on energy costs over a 25-year period once the solar array is installed.