Excessively high energy consumption and an awareness of environmental considerations induced Northumbria University to monitor all campus boilers. It was important to know how much energy was required to heat individual campus buildings and to reduce downtime of the heating and water systems. To that end, University estates staff called in Invisible Systems Ltd, a Cumbrian company who manufacture wireless energy monitoring and control software and hardware. A bespoke software programme gathers all available data from the boilers and displays information which allows buildings to operate in an environmentally friendly way. A site’s operational consumption is made visible, highlighting where energy use can be reduced and where costs can be saved. If individual buildings were not in use, the flow of gas or water could be shut off and considerable savings made. Vahid Tambe, the company’s Technical Director searched the internet for suppliers of ultrasonic flowmeters and selected Micronics as they gave the best competitive quote. The Micronics U3000 and Calec ST ModBus were successfully used to calculate usage and control the boilers more effectively.
Vahid was delighted with his choice of flow meters. “The U3000 proved itself simple to install as we didn’t need any specialist skills or tools. It just clamps onto the pipe then we connected the power and simply entered the pipe’s diameter.” Micronics flowmeters are a cost effective alternative to traditional in-line meter installation. Moreover, it was crucial for the University which is busy almost 24/7 that there is minimum downtime and maximum availability so the fact that dry servicing is possible was a distinct advantage.
The University plans to install more Micronics flowmeters, particularly where they need to know how much energy is used in buildings part owned by them and part by a big supermarket chain.
For further information on this project or the Micronics range call Micronics on +44(0)1628 810456, or visit www.micronicsflowmeters.com.