The SpoonerPlus team was approached by a customer experiencing issues with gas usage on their baking oven. This had been steadily increasing even though no changes had been made to the existing setup and process.
MORE UNDERSTANDING BY BEING ON-SITE
SpoonerPlus engineers attended the site to undertake an energy audit of the oven in order to identify the cause and provide a solution. Whilst on-site, our engineers were also made aware of the uncomfortable working conditions for operators due to the excessive heat in the area of the oven.
ENERGY SURVEY TO REVEAL BEST SOLUTION
The energy audit was undertaken during normal production. Part of the audit included a thermal imaging survey of the oven which determined an excessive amount of heat being transferred through the walls of the oven. This indicated inefficient insulation in the oven’s construction.
TURNKEY – WE TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING
SpoonerPlus recommended that it would be most cost effective to replace the insulation, and the customer instructed them to do so. The SpoonerPlus team offered a turnkey solution for the design, supply and installation of new insulation to the oven walls.
The oven was measured so that the insulation could be made to fit prior to the engineers going to the site in order to minimise downtime. SpoonerPlus installed the correct grade of insulation, taking into account the thickness and density to be the most efficient and cost effective for the oven process conditions.
MEASURABLE RESULTS – GREAT ROI
The insulation was installed in staggered layers and every joint was sealed. The replaced insulation reduced the outer temperature of the oven walls from 55°C to 30°C.
With the pre-planning and manufacture before arrival on-site, the total downtime of the oven was three days which is a reduction of more than 20% compared to measuring and manufacturing on-site.
SMALL SAVINGS PER HOUR – LARGE SAVINGS PER YEAR
What kind of savings can you expect by improving the oven insulation?
| Efficiency | Outer Surface Temperature | Heat Loss |
| 100% | 32°C | 67.63 W/m²/min |
| 50% | 38.2°C | 131 W/m²/min |
The extra cost of generating energy to overcome a 50% reduction in the efficiency of thermal insulation would be £4.53 per hour or £7,344 per year, this is the amount that could be saved based on an oven length of 20m.
What is the outer surface temperature of your oven? Would you like to know the savings you can achieve?
If you want to find out more about how SpoonerPlus can support you, get in touch with Andrew Stead at astead@spooner.co.uk or call +44 (0)1943 609 505.
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