BMS slashes heating bills for Numatic
Numatic, which makes industrial, commercial and domestic cleaning equipment, is saving 21.8% on its gas consumption following the installation by BG Energy Solutions of a Trend building-management system. Within the first year of operation, half of the initial investment had already been recouped.
The site of Numatic International at Chard in Somerset, has 20 buildings, and 100 employees help produce 6000 machines a day — including the Henry vacuum cleaner.
Andrew Smith, Numatic’s property and energy manager explains that since 2009 the company has been signed up to the Climate Change Agreements scheme, which sets demanding targets to reduce carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency. Numatic has achieved three targets since 2009.
However, he admits that most of the ‘low-hanging fruit’ has been picked over the past eight years.
‘We reached the point where we thought a BMS might be a good way forward. BG visited site and listened to our requirements, and recommended that a Trend BMS would be the most suitable for our application.’
BG is an open-systems house with experience of many BMS technologies on the market.
All but one of the larger buildings on the site have gas heating. 50 space heaters required control by the BMS, with each one wired individually. Most heaters were retained, with a few being replaced.
The heaters were previously controlled using local thermostats and time clocks.
Andrew Smith explains, ‘Staff could easily interfere with the settings or the devices could go wrong without anyone realising. We were getting complaints about poorly functioning heaters and failures, With this in mind, we wanted a system that would allow us to adjust temperature and times easily and send an alarm in the event of a fault so that we could attend to it quickly.
‘Comparing 2016 to 2015, we have seen a 21.8% reduction in gas kWh per degree day. Considering our gas bill (ignoring VAT) in 2015 averaged around £24 000 a month, s proportion of which was used for production processes, this significant saving on the space-heating element means we have already recouped half of the original costs for the BMS.
’We are already planning to expand the system further — hopefully to bring lighting, chillers and air compressors under the control of the BMS. Over average electricity bill is around £100 000 a month, so the potential for savings is considerable.’
