Sabien supports DSA’s carbon reduction plan

18 February 2013

The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) is using Sabien Technology’s M2G intelligent boiler load optimisers to help it meet its carbon reduction targets by preventing boiler dry cycling.

At the DSA’s Eastgate site, for example, analysis has shown energy savings of 22% over and above those already being achieved by the building management system (BMS). The payback period is projected to be around 1.4 years.

“Having already successfully implemented a number of energy-saving initiatives we were challenged by Government to achieve a further 10% reduction in carbon emissions,” recalled the DSA’s Sustainable Development Manager Tom Newholm. “This led us to consider additional interventions and we had heard from colleagues at the Highways Agency that the M2G had delivered significant savings for them. We therefore decided to consider using M2G as one of a number of carbon reduction measures being initiated across the DSA estate,” he added.

Following discussions and site surveys, M2G units were fitted to boiler plant at the DSA’s Eastgate House in Newcastle and at a second site in Cardington. These two sites are the highest gas consumers on the DSA estate, accounting for around 17% or total gas consumption. In both cases, the M2Gs were fully integrated with the existing BMS and used to complement the existing control strategies.

Eastgate House is fitted with Ideal Concord Super Series 3 modular boilers, made up four 50 kW modular boilers to give a total boiler output of 200 kW. Sabien applied its unique ‘master slave’ solution to control all the sequenced modules from one M2G, measuring the boiler load profile as a complete system.

Boiler plant at Eastgate House is connected to a single gas meter so measuring gas consumption before and after installation of the M2G was very straightforward. Following correction with degree day data, combined with CuSum analysis, the gas savings were shown to be 22%, which equates to a reduction in CO2 emissions of 12 tonnes per annum.

At the Cardington site the gas meter measures consumption for a variety of uses in the building, so that the gas consumption data for the heating could not be isolated for evaluation purposes.

“We are very pleased with the savings that have been achieved and the way that Sabien managed the installation and validation aspects of the project,” Tom Newholm concluded.

About Sabien Technology

Sabien Technology is the manufacturer and supplier of the M2G intelligent boiler load optimiser.

The M2G improves the efficiency of each individual boiler regardless of age and size by removing dry cycling, an inherent problem found in commercial boilers. This is achieved without changing the boilers’ designed set points or impacting on ambient room temperatures.

M2G is retro-fitted to each boiler and monitors the temperature of the water in the flow and return every 10 seconds, enabling the M2G to analyse the temperature losses from the boiler. The M2G calculates whether the temperature loss is caused by a genuine heating demand or from standing losses i.e. temperature losses through the boiler casing and flue. When the boiler tries to fire as a consequence of the standing losses the M2G will prevent the boiler from firing resulting in reduced energy consumption.

M2G complements and integrates with existing building controls by identifying any changes to the boilers set point from building management systems or additional controls such as weather compensation.

Sabien’s M2G has been evaluated and deployed by a number of end users and FM service providers, with typical paybacks of less than two years. These include central government departments such as Defra, the Highways Agency and CLG, along with many local authorities and universities, BT, Aviva, Royal Mail, Interserve, Vinci Facilities, EDF Energy, Schneider Electric, Babcock, Carillion, John Laing, G4S, Serco and Jones Lang LaSalle.