Case studies

A 50kW wood pellet-fired boiler is proving considerably cheaper than electricity for heating the Bay of Plenty‘s 30 bed Titoki Healing Centre.

Fully automated and fed by a 3-tonne hopper topped up by the truckload, the system operates virtually hands-free.

Installation cost around $80,000. That compared more than favourably to the other main option, heat pumps, at around $90,000. Running costs are even more competitive at about $4,400 annually, almost a third of the costs estimated for running heat pumps.

Pacific Wood Products (PWP) installed Ecogate control systems on their extraction fans. Through the use of air flow control gates and a variable speed drive connected to each fan that adjusts to meet the actual workload, PWP reduced their energy use substantially.

Energy savings were immediate from week one. The system will be paid for in be just over 4 years, and long-term they benefit from lower energy bills. Equally important, PWP will cut its annual CO2 emissions by 45 tonnes.

This farm installed a heat exchange system - it extracts the heat from the waste water and uses it to pre-warm the incoming water in the dairy shed. It reduces energy use as less energy is needed to heat each new batch of water to the 85 degrees celsius required for the next wash.

Monitoring has shown that the system is on target to achieve an annual energy saving of 30%. That equates to a cut in CO2 emissions of about one tonne a year.

Canterbury Laundry Service replaced two steam powered dryers with LPG direct fired dryers and cut its annual energy costs by $46,000.

The move also cut the company's CO2 emissions and boosted its operating capacity.