University of Bath  |  2009-01-05

A combination of technology, information and people make big savings!

3 West North (3WN) is one of the newest buildings on the campus, built in 2005 to house a number of research laboratories as part of the Department of Physics. It includes drawing towers for making photonic crystal fibres, a 200-seater lecture theatre and two general teaching classrooms for 100 and 30 people, as well as various labs with equipment including lasers, lathes and furnaces. This vital research, however, is energy intensive, and the building has an annual electricity bill of £70,000.

Within the Department of Estates, significant investment has been made in improving the energy monitoring of buildings such as this, and through the Our Big Energy Challenge project, a departmental energy champion has been trained and now acts as a point of contact for the Energy & Environment team.

This champion, technician Harry Bone, together with Alan George, the Technical Manager for the department, helped organise the key people to get together and examine the energy information for the building. An action plan was put together and certain key changes to the operating regime were made, without risking the integrity of the research conditions.

The very positive results of this exercise can be seen in the graphs below showing the weekly electricity usage pattern before, during and after the changes were made.

Before:

The week the changes were made...

And the following week (and every week after that...)

And so, thanks to the efforts of Harry, Alan and the team in Estates we have saved:
380,000 kWh every year
£35,000 every year
160 tonnes CO2 every year

Pegler Ltd  |  2003-01-01

Doncaster-based Pegler has been manufacturing high quality valves, taps and flow controls for over 100 years. The first company to mass produce screw-down taps around 1900, they have continued to innovate both in terms of products and manufacturing techniques ever since.

Efficiency has long been a watchword at their seven-acre Belmont works, and this philosophy has been brought into sharper focus by the Climate Change Levy. The company manufactures a wide range of products designed to save energy and water, such as thermostatic radiator valves, flush controls and electronic flow controls, and is therefore no stranger to energy management. However, as an energy intensive user of electricity, Senior Technician Graham Shores realised additional information was necessary if the company was to reduce consumption and hit its Climate Change Agreement targets.

Elcomponent was selected to supply a comprehensive sub-metering system, of which 'Phase 1' comprised some 40 meter points. The simple architecture of the system meant that Pegler's own electrical maintenance team had no difficulty installing the hardware which was subsequently commissioned by Elcomponent who also installed and configured their 'MeterRing 2000' software. Despite costing less than £15,000, the system identified annual savings substantially in excess of £40,000 in the first few months of operation. This prompted an upgrade to more sophisticated 'MeterRing MM' software, and the authorisation of 'Phase 2' of the project which has more than doubled the size of the system.

All savings so far have been achieved through waste elimination and improvements in housekeeping and are therefore essentially 'zero cost'. As might be expected, melting and forging brass is an energy-intensive process and significant savings have been achieved on the company's furnaces. The ability of MeterRing MM to produce not only daily consumption graphs for the furnaces, but also to calculate the 'cost per kg' of brass produced for each melt (from data imported from Peglers factory automation system), has now allowed the furnace team leaders to dramatically improve performance in a number of areas. Energy consumption has dropped and productivity has improved - at the same time!

This fast track approach has allowed the company to hit its agreed targets for energy reduction and thus retain its 80% CCA discount whilst creating a new level of energy awareness within the business. Phase 2 of the sub-metering system will allow much greater sophistication in the use of available data to achieve more savings in electricity consumption as well as in the company's substantial gas spend.

With its factory chimney still dominating the Doncaster skyline Pegler may look like a traditional business, but appearances in this instance are deceptive, as the use of new and effective technology is an integral part of the company's continuing success in a competitive market.

Science Museum  |  2003-01-01

As part of the ongoing modernisation of the Science Museum buildings, a need was identified for a networked metering system to provide information on a variety of utilities and building services. The fundamental requirements included flexibility of operation, simple installation and of course, fast payback on the capital expenditure Elcomponent's 'MeterRing' system was chosen as it is based around the well proven RS485 cable network, and it is easily configured to interface with any kind of pulse output meter, including in this case the sophisticated heatflow meters used to measure the heat energy supplied to the Science Museum from the central boiler house which also provides hot water to several other adjacent sites. In addition to collecting data from existing meters around the building, a number of new kWh meters were installed to provide half-hour consumption profiles of usage in all key areas.

The newly commissioned system is already providing the detailed information necessary for the undertaking of both long and short term energy management projects which will result in a major improvement in the energy efficiency of the site.

Torringtons  |  2003-01-01

Bearing manufacturer Torrington Ltd have good reason to present their Darlington factory as a centre of excellence. As major players in a global market for high performance specialist roller bearings they are acutely aware of the importance of quality in every aspect of the manufacturing process. In a business where a variety of precision processes are critical in order to produce such high precision components, attention to detail is clearly important.

It comes as no surprise to learn that the production of world class bearings is an energy-intensive process, and this is an area where Torrington have been characteristically thorough.

A recent project initiated by Torringtons through PB Kennedy & Donkin to put in a sub-metering package resulted in the installation of a 16 point MeterRing 2000 system from ourselves. Following a detailed site assessment using an SP MAX portable data logger, the correct number of meters was identified to log and report on all aspects of the site and the manufacturing process. Connected via an RS485 cable network the system reports to two separate PCs, allowing both engineering and accounting staff to benefit from the data. Immediate benefits have included substantial cost savings achieved by retiming furnace cycles to take advantage of off-peak rates, and improvements in machine reliability.

This latter advantage resulted from the ability of the system to provide dynamic readings for phase current for each meter. This has enabled preventative maintenance to be carried out on a pro-active basis, using the load characteristics of the phase currents to indicate their condition and performance.

Rushcliffe Leisure Centre  |  2003-01-01

The Rushcliffe area of Nottinghamshire boasts some excellent leisure facilities operated by the local Borough Council, including a number of swimming pools, the East Midlands Gymnastic Centre, Indoor Bowls Centre (ARENA) and a variety of Sports Halls, Squash Courts and Fitness Suites.

The varied usage patterns of these buildings are a significant challenge in respect of effective energy management. This, combined with a Council directive to reduce carbon emission by 10% over 10 years, highlighted the need for detailed information on energy consumption across all utilities. With this in mind, and in addition to implementing various energy saving measures/ technologies, Rushcliffe Leisure Centre Maintenance Officer Ralph Fearn was asked to look into sub-metering across all five locations. An Elcomponent MeterRing system was subsequently installed, which automatically monitors all the centres for electricity gas and water usage, using dial-up connections to update the host PC.

The detailed 'half-hour' consumption data thus provided has resulted in some spectacular immediate savings, as well as facilitating longer term strategic improvements. One of the most common instant benefits of sub-metering is waste reduction, and in this area the system has proved its worth with savings of between £500 / £750 per month being achieved. MeterRing allows real time viewing of power usage at any time, in addition to its automated functions, and this is also being used to assess the impact of new procedures and energy efficiency initiatives.

Elcomponent's commitment to customer support has also been appreciated by the customer. Right from day one, effective telephone and site support has ensured that a high level of performance and reliability has been maintained.