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.

Complete system

Eastgate House is fitted with Ideal Concord Super Series 3 modular boilers, made up of four 50kW modular boilers to give a total boiler output of 200kW. 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.