Site Heating

Heating is generally a low cost for plastics sites because of rejected process heat. However, this is uncontrolled, costly, and uncomfortable in summer. Insulating the process and heating the building using purpose-designed and controlled systems is far cheaper.

Heating should make working areas comfortable for staff; low heating levels are not productive.

The best and cheapest way to reduce energy use is to improve existing controls. Most systems will have thermostat controls, but simple timers can save money— every extra hour of heating adds 4% to the cost.

Action:

Reducing the heating temperature by 1°C will reduce heating costs by about 8%.
Check that all controls are operating and set correctly.
Where cooling is also used, then interlocked controls should be used to prevent heating and cooling at the same time.
Raise staff awareness of the cost of heating and encourage their involvement in heating issues.
Install tamper-proof thermostats and controllers to stop staff from changing them.
Review temperature settings annually and ensure that control settings reflect the seasons.
Pumps and fans should only operate when the system is active.
Do not heat lightly occupied areas when all that is required is humidity control.

Note: Dr. Robin Kent is the author of Energy Management in Plastics Processing, published by Plastics Information Direct, and managing director of Tangram Technology Ltd., consulting engineers specializing in energy management in plastics processing. rkent@tangram.co.uk.