Willerby Holiday Homes has reduced its annual energy bill by £46,000 since investing in a new energy-efficient dust extraction system designed, supplied and installed by Dust Control Systems (DCS).
Willerby Holiday Homes is the UK’s largest manufacturer of holiday homes and lodges, and a large user of timber and panel products.
The new dust extraction system comprises an externally-sited Schuko EcoVar 2030 modular chain filter which has a total airflow volume of 135,000m3/hour. Filter cleaning is carried out by a dual cleaning system which employs a cleaning fan housed at the top of the filter, and mechanical shaker system at the base.
The energy-efficient system employs three 55kW direct-drive main fan units, which replace the previous three 75kW belt-driven fans, and extract from a total of 40 processing machines. The filter has rotary valve discharge into a 15kW fanpowered closed-loop waste transfer system which feeds waste directly into two large-capacity boxcarts.
The new filter plant replaced the enormous drag chain filter, which had been built on top of the factory’s maintenance shop. DCS disconnected the old plant, in preparation for its removal, and installed three 710mm-diameter main ducting runs from the new main fans to existing junctions within the factory.
A key feature of the energy-saving installation is the Ecogate extraction-ondemand system, which constantly monitors the use of each individual processing machine and automatically regulates the speed of the relevant fan unit accordingly. The system employs an Ecogate greenBOX MASTER SRL controller, motorised gates and sensors at each machine, together with variable speed drives for the three main fans. The required power requirement to each fan is determined by the opening and closing of the motorised gates, so uses only the exact amount of power required and avoids energy wastage.
Willerby Holiday Homes contracted DCS to install the new system during the firm’s summer shutdown. "The project required a lot of detailed planning and DCS worked together with us from initial concept through to completion," said Willerby’s facilities manager, Christian Wilson. "They were confident from the outset that they could achieve installation and commissioning within the allotted timescale and that they could attain the levels of savings they forecasted.
"I’m pleased to report that they scored highly on both counts; the transition from the old to the new system was almost seamless. And, our production people love the new system – it’s far more efficient than the old plant, it’s much quieter, and it saves us a significant amount of expenditure on electricity."
DCS engineers conservatively predicted that the new system would save around £35,000 per year on energy usage compared with Willerby’s old dust plant, but following a review of stored data after one month’s operation, the annual savings forecast has been adjusted up to £46,000.
