Some of our
success stories

Bandvulc Tyres

Background

Bandvulc produces retreaded tyres for heavy goods vehicles at a factory on the outskirts of Plymouth. The company has an annual turnover of £22 million and employs 240 staff. Energy consumption in 2005 was approximately 10.3 million kWh, worth £300,000. This represents 3.75% of total turnover.

Like most industrial sites, Bandvulc only had access to periodic data for the main electricity meter, and even then only up to a month after the event. There was no way to obtain detailed profile data for gas and water, or for the outside air temperature and other factors that were driving variations in energy consumption. Also there was no sub metering of different processes on site.

Installation

A DATACHICK system was installed consisting of small radio transmitters connected to each of the meters, counting the pulses from the meters and reporting to a logger on site. Each of the meters had to be adapted to produce a pulse output. The cost of the installation was £4,610.

The installation was conducted during working hours with no disruption to normal activities.

The system reports through a DYNAMATplus software package on a dedicated PC on site, and can also be dialled up remotely by C3 Resources and the EMT / LEA bureau team based in Leicester.

Energy savings identified

The system immediately showed that after a short warm-up period when the steam boilers were started each Sunday, gas consumption was constant at approximately 1.1MW throughout production hours, without the expected variation in line with rate of production. This meant that the standing losses in the type presses and steam distribution system were very large compared with the amount of heat actually going into the product.

Results

Savings

Annual gas saving was £10,852 (at Carbon Trust standard price – more in reality). The cost of the lagging was £20,000, giving a 1.8 year payback.
Annual electrical power saving was £37,349.93 (at Carbon Trust standard price – more in reality). The cost of the lighting was £20,000, giving a 1.8 year payback

Costs

The total cost of the original meter reading system was £4,610. The additional meters in the electrical switch room cost £1,000.

Payback

Based on the cost of the metering system and the measures implemented, overall payback was 0.12 years