Energy experiment leads to £5,000 saving for farm
A project funded by the Potato Council could save a Dawsmere farm up to £5,000 a year in energy costs.
In a time when energy prices are sky-rocketing, the importance of keeping costs as low as possible is becoming more and more important to farms across the country.
For Loveden Estates, in Durham Road, taking part in the Potato Council scheme over the 2007/08 season was a massive eye-opener when it came to electricity usage, which was usually calculated by a single meter.
The Potato Council project saw two separate electricity meters installed in two potato stores, one a relatively new 1100t capacity purpose-built store, the other an 800t converted store originally used for onion storage, both with a target holding temperature of about 2.5-3C.
Farm manager Anthony Campling always knew how much more difficult it was to keep the temperature down in the smaller store, but was not aware how much of an effect it was having on the energy bills.
After just a month, the smaller store was found to have an energy bill 500 higher than the other, a figure that would have cost Loveden Estates almost 5,000 over an entire season.
Farm manager Anthony Campling said: "Because we were getting all our electricity usage off one meter we knew we were using quite a bit of electricity but we did not know how much each store was using.
"Now we have found out how much more it has been costing, we have been spraying the offending store to improve the insulation and the Potato Council has provided us with infra-red cameras to check we haven't missed anything."
The benefits of one small experiment could have massive benefits for Loveden Estates, with all the stores now having meters installed that will be monitored, with the company also exploring renewable sources to fulfil the farm's power requirement.
Mr Campling added: "Electricity is a sizeable expense and is getting more expensive so we can't afford to be throwing it about willy-nilly!"
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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