I was watching the news this morning and heard that Al Gore had won the Nobel Peace Prize--a timely recognition as October is Energy Awareness Month. Gore has been speaking out for years against global warming and whether you like him or not, it doesn't hurt anyone to be a little more environmentally conscious and aware.
As part of Energy Awareness Month, the Federal Energy Management Program is providing materials to federal employees that can help remind them of making smart choices for saving energy, money and resources (items such as room temperature cards).
Glass products have been proven to be a great way to reduce energy costs. But still, it takes a lot of energy to produce some of those products. What if every company in the glass industry found just one or two ways to reduce energy usage? According to the EPA, recycling paper (and we all use paper), for example, can reduce water usage by 60 percent, energy by 70 percent and cut pollution in half. Do you have ideas that glass companies could employ to help save energy? Email me and let me know what you think.
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ENERGY AWARENESS
CONSUMPTION of energy occurs every minute of every day, literally at the flick of a switch, with little regard for the impact on the environment.
CONSERVATION is a conscious state of mind. An awareness of “is it really necessary”? In the home, do all of the lights need to be on as well as multiple appliances, TV’s and computers? In industry can the processes be improved to reduce power consumption?
ENERGY SAVING. Our company is a glass lamination company. The process requires high levels of power consumption over extended periods. Recently we reviewed the equipment using the power, redesigned it, reduced the weight significantly and SAVED 55% of the power for the process. This doubled production capacity and halved the unit costs of manufacture.
WASTE. Our motto is “A PERFECT laminate….EVERY time”. The key to this is total awareness and management of the heating and cooling process. Each successful lamination creates a complete record enabling the process to be repeated consistently. Waste is eliminated, products costs are reduced.
SUN”S ENERGY. The energy available from the sun is truly amazing and it’s FREE. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Capturing and using it can have very significant cost benefits. In the creation of a glass laminate a significant amount of heat is required. We have incorporated industrial level solar heating to heat our circulating oil. The solar heating system is totally independent of the glass lamination process. This avoids variations in the weather.
Both the heating and cooling cycles are monitored. The temperature of the oil determines where it is stored. This optimizes energy recovery.
TIME OF DAY. Ever noticed in the commercial district of cities that most of the lights remain on after business hours? Is this wasteful? In a nutshell NO! The power companies produce inexpensive electricity with very large power turbines generating 500 mega watts. These cannot be turned on and off like we turn our lights on and off. Such large amounts of electricity cannot be stored. So use it or lose it. Energy conservation mainly benefits daytime operations and reduces the amount of additional power units that need to be brought on line for short periods to supplement the base load.
This provides an opportunity to run high energy processes at night. The power companies get a better balanced load and the consumer gets a lower rate.
PROFITS. All companies are in business to make a profit. The business overhead is a cost that goes on regardless of production levels. Overhead is added to the cost of production. If the production costs are lowered by reduced energy usage the unit cost of manufacture is reduced. This falls right to the bottom line.
This may be of greater benefit to profitability than sales promotions or price reductions or other marketing techniques.
ENERGY AWARENESS CAN GENERATE BIG SAVINGS> GO GREEN
Thanks for your comments Barb. I'd like to talk to you more about what your company does to conserve energy. Can you email me, please? Thanks!
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