English Institute of Sport Sheffield (EISS)

Energy Saver Trial

ENGLISH INSTITUTE OF SPORT (EISS) ENERGYSAVER TRIAL

EIS Sheffield is the country’s largest multi-sports training centre making sports accessible for everyone - the local community, schools, general public, businesses and elite athletes. The world class facilities are home to numerous local and national sporting clubs and governing bodies and enable participation in more than 60 sports activities at all levels. 

Specialist facilities include a Judo Hall, Combat Hall, Netball and Badminton Halls, Multipurpose Hall and a 200m Indoor Athletics Arena. Gym facilities are available at the members-only Valley Fitness Suite and the sports halls are used for training and education and are available to hire for activities, events and special occasions 

On 31 March 2014, 110 litres of EnergySaver was added to the heating system fluid, via the make-up tank (EISS consumes an average of 2GWh of gas per annum).

In order to ensure all of the EnergySaver went into the heating system (not the expansion vessel), the expansion vessel was completely drained. Then a further 120 litres of heating fluid were removed from the system, prior to dosing the system with EnergySaver (ES).

EISS has a water meter fitted in the supply pipe to the heating system; this made estimating the system volume very easy. Firstly a desktop calculation was carried out in order to estimate the system volume, then this was checked against the water meter which supplies the heating, a very close match with the desktop and water meter reading was observed.

The water supply to the make-up tank was isolated and once the system had been depressurised and the system fluid removed, the tank was filled with Energy Saver, prior to switching on the pressurisation pumps to initiate the dosing process. 110 litres (approximately 1.1% of system volume) was added to the system before switching the water supply back on, allowing full system filling and pressure to be returned to the system.

ES can produce a large amount of suds during the transfer into the system tank, so care needs to be taken to avoid skin and eye contact (as the safety data sheet states the materials making up the Energy Saver can be an irritant), the wearing of protective footwear is also recommended, or alternatively the Energy Saver could be pumped from the storage drums into either the dosing pot, or make-up tank.

The heating system is powered by 2No. Hovel Cosmos 1MW boilers fitted with Weishaupt Monarch 300-1750 kW pressure jet burners (see below), each boiler is also fitted with a boiler optimisation unit.

Energy consumption at EISS is closely monitored, and Heating Degree Day (HDD) calculations are carried out on a monthly basis following the boiler optimisation.

There is a very good correlation between HDD and gas consumption at the venue, when calculating the Standard Deviation this is generally in the realms of R2= 0.958, so almost perfect conditions to run a trial with this type of technology.

CUSUM analysis of the site has shown over the past twelve months the boiler optimisation has delivered a 16% reduction in energy use, after HDD correction. Using the same analysis for the Energy Saver trial will demonstrate any changes to the energy consumption at the venue, this is then converted into a cash figure when calculating any saving shown in consumption against the prevailing rate of gas.

N.B. the data above shows a 33% saving in June; this was due to part of the building being closed for improvement.

By converting the energy into a financial figure we will be able to identify at what point the investment cost has been recovered, and from which point we start to realise a saving which we will continue to monitor for changes in performance.

April 2014 shows a combined saving of 28.8% on Degree Day predictions, so in order to see how much of this saving was attributable to Energy Saver the data was recalculated for the previous year and a new chart and analysis produced – as below.

The recalculation after taking into account pressure, temperature and calorific value of the gas supplied during the month of April 2014, that 15% of the reduction in energy was attributable to EnergySaver.

Applying the revised calculations of Heating Degree Days, shows that there was a financial saving in the region of £520 including CCL and CRC charges at 2.1p/kWh, and forecasting a saving of 322,632kWh (circa £8,000) for the year ahead (using the 20 year average temperatures in both cases), producing a carbon reduction of approximately 59 tonnes of CO2.

In this case study it is evident that the dosing of the wet heating system with EnergySaver, has made a significant contribution to the energy consumption and carbon emissions at this venue during a relatively mild April, and that the initial cost of the product will have been repaid in several months.

We are confident that the product delivers on savings and will be closely monitoring the performance of the system in the coming months; we are already considering which building we are going to do next.

The EISS EnergySaver trial managed and the report authored by:

Sean Midgley GCGI, MCMI, Tech - IOSHEnergy & Environmental Manager at SIV Ltd

For more information on EnergySaver or to purchase EnergySaver, please contact;Phil Smith-Lawrence Green Frog Enterprises Ltd. phil@greenfrogenterprises.co.uk or 07748443805 / 0161- 264 - 0939.

Making warmth more affordable.