Any industrial business that needs precise temperatures — be it scorching hot temperatures in a smelting plant or subzero levels in deep refrigeration — spends a considerably higher amount of its running costs settling electricity bills compared with other utility costs.
In such a setting, you could lower your operating expenses by using an automated temperature control system to keep the temperatures within acceptable and comfortable levels and reduce the energy needed to make corrections.
Here are other helpful tips from Gordo Sales, Inc. on cutting down operational costs.
1. Automate the system from end to end.
While thermal sensors and temperature gauges might tell when to flip a switch, adding solid state relays to the system does away with human error. Although many managers know that automation has high overhead costs, the concept is that you will save more in the long term.
It is important, though that you get a technician that will never forget to turn on or off the system, meaning that your temperatures will stay within the acceptable margin with little or no supervisions needed.
Automation will also help you in controlling different points of your production chain in a modular manner since the thermal sensors, control boards and switching relays can be installed virtually anywhere without occupying as much space as a workstation would.
2. Recycle as much as possible.
Yes, you can recycle temperatures as well. Heating or cooling creates temperature differentials that you are more than able to use to your advantage if you design your system efficiently.
For instance, in the event that your plant relies on heating materials to 2,000 degrees, chances are that the air around the smelting plant will have considerably high temperatures as well.
You could capture this heat and use it to preheat incoming material before it enters the crucible instead of going to waste. Keep in mind that about a half of all heat generated in power plants end up being wasted. This is not only wasteful to your finances, but it is also not helping the environment.
3. Monitor your insulation.
In cases in which you cannot recover the heating or cooling effect you just spent energy to generate, you should invest in a high-quality insulating material to keep your product within the ideal temperature range for as long as possible.
Do note that the more you keep the material from interacting with the environment, the less energy you will use to maintain the system within the ideal temperature. Time is of the essence here.
It is in every business’ best interest to keep costs low as much as it can — more so to reduce costs where they are able to. It would be a waste to keep producing profit only to put back into overhead expenses. You don’t
To that end, automation is just but a single cog in the huge wheel of temperature control management. Even though it gives you precision and modularity, it won’t help you cut down production costs if you don’t recycle and insulate as much as you should, as often as you can.
