Energy Saving at Aizlewood's Mill
17th October 2018
As we enter Green Great Britain week, it’s time to take a look at the energy saving initiatives we have introduced in Aizlewood’s Mill over the last few years and how we have been able to reduce our carbon footprint on behalf of all the organisations in our serviced offices here in Sheffield.
Aizlewood’s Mill is a beautiful grade 2 listed building which was renovated at the end of the 1980s at a time when energy efficiency was not considered as high a priority as it is now. All the light fittings were 6 foot fluorescent tubes and the gas-fired central heating was designed in just two controllable zones. Cast iron pipes allowed heat to escape in the corridors and stairwells reducing the efficiency of the radiators.
In 2005 we started our programme of improvements throughout our serviced offices and meeting rooms and have been enjoying the benefits ever since. One of the easiest improvements was to put pipe lagging in all the areas where we would not get any advantage from escaping heat from the pipes, and also in the serviced offices which had some of the larger pipes that feed hot water to the upper floors. These offices were generally too warm and so our occupants were happy to be a little cooler and the radiators at the top of the building were warmer allowing us to turn the thermostats down a degree or two.
The next improvement, suggested by our resident electricians Affinity Electrical Services, was to systematically replace all the corridor and toilet area lights for PIR controlled LED fittings. The old fluorescent light fittings needed to be on all night to ensure the safety of all the users of the building and the new PIR sensors allow for us to turn the lights off overnight and for the corridors to be lit only when in use. During the working day the lights are on permanently as there is no natural light in the corridors, but between the hours of 7pm and 7am and throughout the weekends the lights operate on demand. The significant savings from this suggestion were immediate with a reduction in the electricity bill of around £10,000 in the first year alone.
Following on from that success, we have replaced all the lights in the stairwells. We have opted not to use PIR sensors in this area as we feel the light showing through the windows at night enhances the security of the building but replacing 2D fluorescent tubes with LED equivalents have once again offered meaningful reductions in energy consumption. Our decision to keep working alongside Affinity Electrical Services was a simple one. Their dedication to detail and passion for producing an effective product meant we could trust them to suggest and implement a quality, reliable solution that will last us for many years to come.
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A more difficult change has been to replace the light fittings inside the occupied units. Aizlewood’s Mill has 59 serviced offices and we are proud of our high occupancy levels. The excellent service provided by the reception team coupled with cost-effective rents and a truly stunning building mean that whilst occupiers take advantage of the opportunity to move office when a more desirable one becomes available, we don’t get many decide to leave. When an office becomes vacant we take the rare chance to replace the fittings without causing any disruption to an occupier, but quite soon we will need to start replacing the fittings in the occupied units. We will continue to use Affinity Electrical Services who now look after all the electrical infrastructure in Aizlewood’s Mill.
Our central heating system has a controller that is kept in Reception which monitors the outside as well as inside temperatures. In such a complex building as Aizlewood’s Mill there is a balancing act between the warmest and coolest areas so we actively monitor both internal and external temperatures to maintain a comfortable working environment. Our controller sends instructions to the boilers to bring the building up to temperature ready for our selected times which means that on a harsh winter morning it might come on in the early hours to make sure we’re toasty and warm to start the day.
The 5th floor has received the greatest benefit. As a grade 2 listed building we must not affect the external appearance, but we have been able to hide some cooling equipment inside the roof void. Back in 2009 we received some support from The Carbon Trust to install a highly efficient evaporative cooling system to some of the upper offices, allowing us to reduce the office temperature by around 7 degrees on the hottest days without using much energy. This system was of great value until it began to show signs of fatigue in recent years and become less efficient. We investigated replacement equipment and with the advice of a local firm, Airmaster, we were rightly persuaded that modern air-conditioning equipment could actually be more efficient that the equipment in place and so we have recently both replaced and added equipment to the entire top floor allowing both heating and cooling on an individual unit basis to supplement the provision already in place.
Unit 54 was the first recipient of the new equipment and we could not fault the work done by the team at Airmaster Air Conditioning. From design to delivery they showed a dedication to providing the best solution for any client, no matter what the limitations and worked alongside our need to adhere to the listed building restrictions. An inventive solution was required to ensure that the most efficient solution was found in a rather awkward space and as soon as the equipment was turned on we knew that our faith in their abilities had been rewarded as the benefits were immediate and the running costs negligible. It was an easy decision a few years later to get them back to replace the bulky and unattractive evaporative cooling system with aesthetically pleasing heating and cooling equipment with lower running costs and higher levels of control.
We have been reading our own meters for the last 28 years so we are fully aware of the impact of all these improvements. As mentioned before, the installation of PIR sensors and LED lights in the corridors alone saved us around £10,000 per year but all of our efficiencies together have produced an overall reduction in energy consumption of around 25% since we started. We have further to go yet, but the rewards we have seen have given us the motivation to continue making improvements.
