Date post: | 14-Apr-2017 |
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Utopia Bathroom Group, the UK’s brand leader in fittedbathroom furniture, has slashed its electricity bills byinvesting in energy-saving dust extraction technologyfrom ECOGATE®.
ECOGATE® – PERFECT FIT FOR UTOPIA
For 25 years, Utopia has beendesigning and manufacturing highquality bathroom furniture, bathroomsuites, and bathroom accessories whichare sold through a network of 600retailers covering the UK and Ireland.Today, the company employs 140 peopleat its large, modern manufacturingcentre in Bilston, West Midlands.
Utopia’s managing director, DaveConn, along with production engineer,Jon Phelps, first saw the Ecogatetechnology being demonstrated at theW12 exhibition and were soon convincedthat retrofitting the Ecogate systemwould make significant savings to therunning cost of Utopia’s existing dustextraction systems.
In May 2013, Ecogate Ltd, togetherwith authorised installer Dust ControlSystems Ltd (DCS), were called in byUtopia to carry out a thorough energyappraisal and present proposals for
retrofitting Ecogate throughout the site.Ian Rayner, sales manager at Ecogate,explains: “Utopia were operating twolarge-capacity drag chain filters, and atotal of eleven main fans; ranging from11kW to 75kW. And, with productionoperating on a two-shift pattern, fanswere running virtually all day, 7 days aweek. We were able to determine theextraction demand for every singlemachine in the workshop and calculatehow each system could be adjusted forvolume and duty cycle by optimising withEcogate. We put forward an ‘extraction-on-demand’ proposal, demonstratingthat annual savings of around 450,000kilowatt hours (kWh) were achievable –giving a full return on the investment inapproximately two years. Furthermore,the installation was backed by a CarbonTrust assessment which meant that itqualified for Green Equipment Financethrough Siemens (SFS Ltd).”
Utopia commissioned DCS to carryout the work which involved theinstallation of eleven Ecogate PowerMASTER® variable speed drive units,each with integral Ecogate greenBOX®
12+ controllers, and a total of twentysix motorised Ecogate damper gateswhich automatically open and closeas machines come on or off line.Responding ‘on-demand’ to variations inmachine usage, the Power MASTERunits continually adjust the speed of the
fans, and optimise energy consumption.Additionally, to aid clean-up on CNCmachining centres, eleven push-to-runoverrides were installed, complete withautomatic 5-minute ‘return-to-service’functions.
Utopia’s Jon Phelps says, “InstallingEcogate made sound business sense.Prior to Ecogate the extraction systemwas running at full capacity – even if onlyhalf the machines were operating.
A bank of Ecogate Power MASTER variable speed drive units with integral controllers.
Ecogate automatically adjusts speed of main fansas machines come on or off line.
Twenty six Ecogate automatic motorised gatesare fitted to individual machines.
Utopia Bathroom Group’s manufacturing centre,Bilston, West Midlands.
For more information contact: DCS Tel: 0800 040 7116www.DCSlimited.co.ukEcogate Tel: 01924 566770www.ecogate.co.uk
Recently, we reached the six month marksince first installing Ecogate, andanalysis of the system data producedstaggering results – total savings wereway ahead of original predictions, andequated to annual savings of 700,000kWh. Ecogate is a remarkable systemwhich, as well as saving energy, has alsoincreased the efficiency of the extractionsystem. And, the DCS installation teaminstalled and commissioned thecomplete system to schedule, over a twoweek period, with no interruption toproduction.”