Introduction
The company is a family-run business and have been manufacturing fine bone china since 1976. Pauline, Peter and Michael Walpole are proud to be continuing Burslem’s ceramic making traditions. The company occupied their 20,000 ft2 premises in 2012; the building being constructed in 1989 and covers 3 floors with most of the space consisting of factory / manufacturing operations with a small amount of office space on the ground floor.
The majority of the company’s energy spend relates to the gas and electric kilns. The main half hourly electricity meter serves the manufacturing operations, and the office electricity is provided through a second, day night meter.
LCBEP Recommendation
Specialist low carbon consultant, Pro Enviro Ltd., visited the Burslem premises in November 2020 to undertake a free LCBEP energy efficiency review that looked at all aspects of the business. They made three recommendations that would reduce both the cost and levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
1)Reduction in Baseload Consumption
A constant baseload of 14 kW has been identified and this is present all the time the facility is not operating. This baseload represents an annual consumption of 122,640 kWh and an approximate cost of £15,330 per annum.
During the site review it was established that there are a number of mixing bowls containing slip and glaze which are continually mixed to maintain the viscosity of the fluids and prevent settlement of the materials within the mix. The baseload of these mixers for the 6,874 hours per annum that the facility is not producing pottery is 47,431 kWh with a cost of £5,929.
It was recommended that trials are undertaken to reduce the level of mixing that is undertaken during the out of hours periods to reduce the running time of the mixer motors. Trials are necessary to ensure that the reduction does not impact on the viscosity of the material and the efficiency of the production process.
If successful and the trial could be repeated during the overnight periods, then the potential benefits could be as high as 39,526 kWh (11.2 tCO2e) and £4,941 per year.
The cost of timers for the mixing bowls would be approximately £500 for the 5 bowls identified during the review.
2)Installation of LED Lighting
The lighting in the building is a mixture of T8 fluorescent tubes and High bay 400W lamps in some of the manufacturing areas.
Improvements in light quality and reductions in consumption levels could be obtained by replacing the current 76 fittings with LED equivalents. The table below shows the potential savings over a 12 month period.
3)Installation of VSD Compressor to Replace the Current Compressors
The compressed air needs of the business are met by two 22 kW HPC ASC 37 compressors that were manufactured in 2008 and have been used by the company for approximately 7 years.
A data logger has been installed on the compressors for a week period and the total consumption for the two compressors has been estimated at 1,474 kWh per week. The company works 46 weeks of the year so the annual total for the two compressors based on the running patterns seen during the weeks monitoring would be 67,800 kWh at a cost of approximately £9,035.
The installation of a variable speed drive (VSD) compressor would allow the volume of air generated to match the air required by the equipment with a minimum of wasted energy.
The annual savings associated with a VSD compressor have been estimated at 42,800 and £5,700.
- Old compressor
- New VSD compressor
LCBEP Grant
Walpole Fine Bone China successfully applied for a grant to replace the old compressors, with net project costs of £16,497.63, and received their grant of £9,898.58 in December 2020.
Taking into consideration the company’s contribution of £6,599.05 and their estimated annual savings of £5,700, their project payment period is calculated as just over 1 year!