Kelvin KBB, a Scottish manufacturer of kitchens and furniture, was facing high electricity bills and the need to replace its dust extraction system when adding a new machine. By retrofitting an ECOGATE energy-saving system, the company avoided replacing the system and significantly reduced electricity costs by £20,000 per year. The ECOGATE system uses variable speed drives and motorized damper gates to automatically adjust fan speed and volume based on individual machine usage, providing efficient extraction while lowering power consumption across the facility.
Scotland's Leading Kitchen Manufacturer Saves £20k/Year with ECOGATE Retrofit
1. Kelvin KBB, Scotland’s leading manufacturer of Kitchens,
Vanity Furniture and Wardrobe Doors, has avoided the need
to replace its existing dust extraction system, and significantly
reduced its electricity bills, by retrofitting ECOGATE®
energy-saving technology from Cades Ltd.
Established in 1986, Kelvin KBB
employs more than 300 people at its
modern 106,000 sq ft facility at
Cumbernauld, Glasgow, from where it
provides leading house builders and
developers with an integrated capability
in design, manufacture and installation
of kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms.
Kelvin KBB is a long-standing
customer of Cades Ltd and, when
Cades were appointed as an authorised
ECOGATE®
installer, they were keen to
explore the potential of the acclaimed
computerised extraction optimisation
system. Kevin Lumb, Facility &
Maintenance Manager at Kelvin KBB,
explains: “When the company decided
to invest in a new Biesse ‘Stream’
edgebander, we called in Steve Rhodes
of Cades to discuss the changes in our
dust extraction requirements. The
existing dust extraction system was
installed a number of years ago and
employs four main extraction fans, with
a total power rating of 180kW. Adding
the new edgebander was going to
significantly exceed the capacity of our
existing extraction system which meant
we were faced with the prospect of
having to purchase a whole new
system.”
As is the case with most workshops,
the four fans had been installed to run
continuously, at full load, all day long.
However, following a thorough site
survey and energy appraisal, Cades
were able to determine the extraction
demand for every single machine in
the workshop, and from this they
identified how the four fans could
be adjusted for volume and duty cycle,
with the aim of lowering the average
total volume and, therefore, reducing
the overall power consumption of
the system.
Steve Rhodes, Sales Director at
Cades, says: “All machines in the
workshop are now fitted with
motorised Ecogate®
damper gates,
which automatically open and close as
machines are turned on or off. By
installing Ecogate®
Power MASTER
variable speed drive units, with integral
greenBOX 12+ controllers, the speed
of each fan is continually adjusted as
the individual machines come on or
off line. Retrofitting the Ecogate®
‘extraction-on-demand’ system means
that the existing filter and fans can now
cope easily with the demands of the
new edgebander and, in addition,
Kelvin KBB is saving around £20,000 a
year in electricity costs.”
Kevin Lumb adds: “Installing
Ecogate obviously made sound
business sense and Cades’ engineers
carried out the work with little or no
disruption to production. We now have
a much more efficient, automated
extraction system and, as well as the
economic advantages, we are also
benefitting from having a very much
quieter workshop.”
For more information:
Tel: 0845 838 6166
or visit
www.cadesltd.co.uk
Kevin Lumb points out power savings to Production Supervisor, Andrew McCormick.
CADES SAVES THE
DAY WITH ECOGATE
Motorised gates open and close as
machines come on line or shut down.
Energy-saving Ecogate system operates
automatically and independently for
each machine.
A section of Kelvin KBB’s showroom
where house buyers can view the range of
furniture options.