Case Studies

Annual Savings of $91,000 and an ROI in just 6.2 Months!

One of our most notable projects to date is the one that we undertook at our sister company, VeriForm Inc., a steel fabricating plant. Notable because of the very significant profit improvement we realized but also because the results inspired the founding of VeriGreen Inc. so that we could share our knowledge and experience with other companies looking for similar savings. What began as an effort to reduce our carbon footprint soon became an unparalleled opportunity to save money.

Following are the results for 37 Energy Conservation and Waste Reduction projects that were successfully implemented at VeriForm.

	All 37 Projects	Top 5 Projects
Total Initial Cost of All Projects	$46,774.70	$21,685.00
Annual Savings	$91,263.26	$71,818.02
Annual CO2 Emissions Reduced	232,613 kg	193,823 kg
Return on Investment	195%	331%
Average Payback Period	6.2 months	3.7 months

Environmental Initiatives	Cost to Implement	Annual Savings	10 Year Savings	Annual CO2 Emissions Reduction (kg)	Annual CO2 Emissions Reduction (tonnes)	Payback Period (months)
Install 10 capacitors	$11,285	$24,118	$384,380.63	28,243	28.24	5.6
Install programmable thermostat in plant	$1,200	$13,911	$221,706.56	84,067	84.07	0.2
T5 lighting in expansion	$2,000	$12,109	$192,991.56	15,212	15.21	2.0
T5 lighting in Bay 1	$6,000	$8,807	$140,357.50	11,063	11.06	8.2
Disconnects on bay doors turn off heat when open	$1,200	$7,893	$125,794.69	47,699	47.70	1.8
Consolidate 2 garbage bins into 1	$0	$4,980	$79,368.75	507	0.51	Immediate
Cut steel 15% above standard industry speeds	$0	$3,155	$50,282.81	3,403	3.40	Immediate
Computers, monitors and printers off at night	$250	$2,978	$47,461.88	3,487	3.49	1.0
Replace paper towels with Xlerator hand dryers	$2,020	$2,853	$45,475.00	2,300	2.30	8.5
T5 electronic ballast lighting in office and lunchroom	$3,000	$1,550	$24,703.13	1,971	1.97	23.2
VeriForm owner buys Hybrid vehicle	$0	$1,200	$19,125.00	2,727	2.73	Immediate
Use software that allows multipage printing per page (www.fineprint.com)	$320	$1,018	$16,224.38	1,293	1.29	3.8
Replace CRT monitors with LCD monitors	$7,200	$888	$14,152.50	1,039	1.04	97.3
Remove 59 of 88 bulbs from office lights	$0	$999	$15,915.33	955	0.95	Immediate
Install extra insulation in the bay 2 ceiling	$5,100	$968	$15,433.24	5,852	5.85	63.2
Buy gases in bulk	$10	$780	$12,431.25	455	0.45	0.2
Buy used ISOLE motion activated power bars	$288	$393	$6,257.38	459	0.46	8.8
Stop purchasing plastic cutlery and dishes	$0	$368	$5,865.00	51	0.05	Immediate
Insulate office walls under windows	$632	$276	$4,402.99	324	0.32	27.4
Turn off heating in office every night	$150	$231	$3,675.28	888	0.89	7.8
Install economizer on air conditioning in office	$500	$200	$3,187.50	770	0.77	30.0
Install motion activated lights outside	$318	$194	$3,087.41	243	0.24	19.7
Motion activated lights in hallways, bathrooms and locker room	$450	$145	$2,310.94	182	0.18	37.2
CFL bulbs in bathrooms, hallway and outside	$24	$135	$2,143.91	518	0.52	2.1
Maintenance on air conditioner twice a year	$300	$128	$2,041.82	494	0.49	28.1
Remove 9 more bulbs in main office	$0	$133	$2,123.15	156	0.16	Immediate
Reduce temperature on water heater to 120°	$0	$129	$2,056.51	151	0.15	Immediate
Turn off all lighting in office every night	$100	$117	$1,862.14	450	0.45	10.3
Wrapped shop water heater and pipes	$50	$60	$956.25	394	0.39	10.0
Replaced all Exit Lights with LED or CFL bulbs	$588	$154	$2,454.38	180	0.18	45.8
Adding 10 new trees on property this year and six more next year	$2,800	$0	$0	218	0.22	n/a
Recycle bottles/cans/plastic	$240	$0	$0	3,553	3.55	n/a
Paper recycling	$115	$0	$0	553	0.55	n/a
Permanent bags for office supplies to eliminate plastic bags with store purchases	$35	$0	$0	49	0.05	n/a
Use YouSendIt software to send large files (www.yousendit.com)	$0	$150	$2,390.63	100	0.10	Immediate
Prohibited use of plastic bags in office waste baskets	$0	$68	$1,083.75	76	0.08	Immediate
Distribute CFL's to staff	$0	$0	$0	4,442	4.44	n/a

 

 

30% Reduction In Electricity Demand

At Custom Engineering Automation, we installed a single capacitor to service several motors. The company realized an immediate reduction in electricity consumption and cost of 30% from this single project. The motors now run cooler, as their amperage draw has been reduced by 15%-50% depending on the motor, and this will also translate into lower maintenance costs. This facility benefited from a single capacitor as compared to the normal installation where capacitors are outfitted at each machine to avoid over correction of a piece of equipment.

Costly Service Upgrade Avoided

At Merit Manufacturing, improved electrical demand through the installation of capacitors meant that, not only did the company see a 30% savings, but they were also able to add an additional laser to their facility without a costly upgrade to their hydro service. The company’s utility provider had required that the property have a $30,000 upgrade to their site to add an additional 200amp service before the new laser could be installed.

By improving the power factor and motor efficiency, the site avoided this upgrade and has no longer experiences the overheated circuits that occurred regularly before the capacitor was installed.