Ten Tips to Save Electricity in Your Factory
Ten practical things you should consider to save electricity in your factory and reduce energy consumption in your factory. They are listed roughly in order of the most benefit to you at the least cost listed first.
|
Benefits |
Capital Cost |
|
| Review your production processes to ensure that energy isn’t being wasted unnecessarily | Very often production processes have evolved over time without due heed having been paid to the associated energy costs. Very often a few simple changes may have dramatic effects to your energy bills. | Zero |
| Trace and eliminate all compressed air leaks. | It takes a lot of electricity to compress air. Any leaks just waste that energy. | Zero (or very low in most cases). |
| Reduce the need for compressed air tools as far as practical. | It takes about five times more electricity to compress air for a tool as it would take to power the same type of tool directly using electricity. | Zero |
| Take the time to understand how electricity is consumed in your factory. | The key to managing anything is understanding it! Use a consumption modelling tool like PowerProphet, to build a model of your daily/weekly/monthly electricity consumption behaviour. The problem areas will soon become evident, as well as the relative costs that can be saved. The benefit gained from an hour or so of effort will yield large results in most cases. | Low |
| Install efficient shower nozzles in the change house and all showers. | These simple, cheap devices save massive amounts of money. You get three simultaneous savings; 50% less water used, 30% less electricity heating water and lower sewage fees which are based on fresh water used. | Low |
| Have your power quality measured. | Power quality problems often have significant costs associated with them. Sometimes those costs are obvious, in other cases they are hidden. | Low |
| If your power factor is low install power quality correction equipment ASAP. | Low power factor at maximum demand is like throwing money down the drain. You are paying much more on your monthly bills than you need to. This is easily rectified. | Medium |
| Consider variable speed drives for fans and other devices that could be run at slower speeds | Most electric motors run at fixed speeds. In some cases fans being driven by those motors need not run at maximum speed all the time. By slowing them down, the power consumed to drive them often falls exponentially. | Medium |
| Use heat pumps to heat water for change houses and any other water heating requirement where water needs to be heated up to 60C | Heat pumps use 70% less electricity to heat water up to 60C. | Medium |
| Consider installing a Grid-Tie PV system. | If you have lots of north-facing roof space and use most of your power during midday, consider installing photo-voltaic panels on the roof and using them to augment your power via a Grid-Tie inverter. This will mean that some of your power will be supplied by the sun directly each day. | Medium/High |
Don’t forget TARIFFS. So many companies are on the wrong tariff… we’ve seen firms paying double what they should because of this!