Introduction
Dog & Bone provide accommodation in a range of buildings, with the energy efficiency review focussed on the premises called Lymedale Aparthotel. This premises offer good quality functional accommodation and a large on-site bar/function room facility. There is a small coin operated laundry for use by residents; many of whom are contractors who stay typically Monday to Thursday night. This type of business is likely to grow significantly as HS2 construction proceeds in the near future.
Upon acquisition of this premises, Dog & Bone carried out extensive renovation works, but still wanted to look at opportunities to make savings, particularly in relation to their heating system, as the technology required was not available at the time of the initial renovation.
LCBEP Recommendation
Specialist low carbon consultant, Pro Enviro Ltd., visited Dog & Bone in April 2019 to undertake a free LCBEP energy efficiency review that looked at all aspects of the business. They made two recommendations that would reduce both the cost and levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
Energy usage was by far the greatest opportunity to make savings at no cost as Dog & Bone’s consumption was significant at over 1 MWh/annum. They obtained the half-hourly electricity data to get an idea of the pattern of usage and to identify any obvious shortcoming in the mode of operation and, following extensive analysis of the data, Pro Enviro recommended that, by reducing their energy baseload consumption by 25%, they could potentially save 4.3 tonnes of CO2 and £3,219 per year, without any cost.
The second recommendation was that Dog & Bone improve the level of control of the gas fired heating systems throughout the premises. This was not aimed at improving the degree of control of the room temperature, rather it was aimed at reducing the heating loads by disabling heating in unoccupied rooms. At the time of the review, there was heating in unoccupied areas since it was simply not possible logistically to travel around all the rooms manually switching valves on and off. Using a central wireless system with controllers would allow this to be achieved without the need for significant physical alterations to the central heating system or the need for significant hard wiring (see example below).
Pro Enviro calculated that, by installing wireless controllers to all the elements of the heating system, this would potentially save Dog & Bone a massive 62.2 tonnes of CO2 and £10,665 per year!
Christina Marshall, LCBEP Lead Officer, Staffordshire County Council, contacted Ashley Booth, Project Manager to discuss and support the business with their grant application.
Due to ongoing investigation and completion of other projects already scheduled, Dog & Bone had to delay their grant application, but it was successfully completed in February 2020.
- Heating zonal control kit
- Old radiator valves
- New smart radiator valves
LCBEP Grant
Dog & Bone successfully applied for a grant to implement this work, which totalled £5,644.92 and received their grant of £3,386.35 in April 2020.
Taking into consideration Dog & Bone’s contribution of £2,258.57 and their estimated annual savings of £13,885, their project payment period is calculated as 2 months!