Camfil shows Property Management & FM firms how to make huge energy savings in buildings |
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| For over 40 years Camfil have been extolling the virtues of investing in Clean Air at the lowest possible total operating cost. Ironically has taken the mother of all recessions, energy security and predicted soaring energy bills, for property and facilities management to realise that Low Energy Air Filters have been available since the early 70s.
Air Filters do not come attached to a plug so making the link with energy consumption sometimes needs to be pointed out. They are installed in all Air Conditioned systems within the Air Handling Unit which is always hidden in the basement or the roof of most commercial buildings. The fan motor delivers the air to the served area within the building and pulls the air from outside through the air filter to clean the air then passes through heating and cooling coils so the comfort level within the building is served to the occupants at a prescribed quality of cleanliness and temperature. The components within the air handling unit represent levels of resistance to the fan motor and effectively cause the fan to work harder than it would if it was in effect an empty box. Therefore the resistance caused by the air filters directly affect energy consumption. This resistance is measured in terms of Pressure Drop (in Pascals). When an air filter is installed it is clean and represents initial resistance to the fan motor this resistance increases over time as the filter gets loaded with dust. So when calculating the cost the air filter system has on energy consumption you need to consider the average resistance (pressure drop in pascals) for the life of the filter. Typically it costs 8 to 10 times the cost of buying the air filters in energy consumption per year. When the tariff on energy gets to 12p per Kwh, each pascal reduction in average pressure drop represents a £2 cost saving. Low Energy Air Filters are designed to lower the average pressure drop through the product life cycle by designing low energy air filters that maximise the effective surface area presented to the air flow. So by investing in low energy air filters you can save a lot of money and co2. Typical average pressure drop reduction can vary from 25 to 100 pascals depending on the existing quality and level of filtration found in situ. So this can represent up to £200 per 2 stage filter system per year and every year if you maintain the protocol of always installing low energy air filters. If an air handling unit has 10 filter sets installed then it would represent a £2000 saving per year every year. This represents a minimum of 20% on your energy bill. The perfect parallel is the plight of the “humble light bulb”. A 100 watt light bulb consuming 1000 hours per year at 10 pence per Kwh costs £10 to run and only 50 pence to buy. This is a ratio of 20:1. Along comes the low energy version and the energy consumption is reduced to £1.80. From 1st September 2009 the humble light bulb has been banned from manufacturing. Although low energy air filters cannot quite boast that level of impact it is still impressive. An air handling unit with 10 filters sets may cost £600 to buy per year and cost over £5000 to run it would make perfect sense to change to low energy air filters and save 30% or £1500. We estimate Greater London has over 1.2 million air filters sets, installed with variable quality of which only 20% have low energy air filters installed. If we say this represents a million potential upgrades, the potential savings are tens of millions of pounds. These upgrades all fit within a maintenance revenue budget protecting the precious capital budget and the return on investment is usually less than 3 months. To unlock this potential look inside your air handling units, if the filters don’t completely fill the accommodation space provided, you have been sold a “value engineered” air filter to suit your perceived budget. Or alternatively, get your current filter asset list and ask for a comparison with low energy air filters but make sure you are furnished with filter Life Cycle Cost data that clearly identifies annual filter, labour, energy and waste costs associated with buying air filters. With the growing raft of standards and legislation and genuine political will to improve the energy consumption in the built environment, the air filtration industry would welcome the resolution likened to the humble light bulb. Camfil Farr is the world leader in air filtration and clean air solutions, with 22 production plants and R&D centres in the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The company’s business concept is to provide customers with best-in-class products and services within four main segments: • Comfort Air • Clean Processes • Power Systems • Safety & Protection With more than 40 years of experience, Camfil Farr delivers value to customers worldwide while providing everyone with something essential - clean air. Contact information: Camfil Ltd Knowsley Road Haslingden Lancashire BB4 4EG Tel: 0044 (0)1706 238000 Fax: 0044 (0)1706 226736 Email filtersales@camfil.co.uk |
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