Plant Applications: Retail co-op saves natural gas costs through air destratification

June 30, 2010

Situation

Federated Co-operative Ltd., a retail cooperative with members throughout western Canada, operates retail shops, fueling stations, building material supply centers, and refineries, occupying numerous warehouse spaces to store its products.

The company was interested in testing whether thermal destratification in its warehouses would result in significant heating cost reductions, further reducing the natural gas needed to heat its numerous facilities.

According to Trevor Carlson, environmental and technical services manager, the company predicted that a fair amount of heat was being wasted at the ceiling. By bringing this heat down, he thought, the firm could decrease the rate at which its buildings were shedding heat through the roof.

Resolution

Carlson decided to conduct pilot tests in the 80,000-sq.-ft. loading dock section of its 300,000-sq.-ft. Saskatoon warehouse. These tests included the installation of five 24-ft.-dia., low-speed Big Ass Fans®.

“Studying this further, we looked at what our degree data was like and calculated our heating index for the year prior and the year after installing the fans,” Carlson said. “After a very short period of operation, we noticed multiple benefits. The workers in the warehouse actually wanted the temperature decreased in the winter because they were too warm. That was very encouraging for us as we were able to change the setpoints of the thermostats because the fans were bringing the heat down, keeping workers comfortable while reducing our costs.”

After tracking the heating index before and after fan installation, Carlson noted “a roughly 10 percent reduction in natural gas consumption,” he said. “It was a 10 percent reduction when we saw a 20 percent increase in natural gas rates. We believe we saved $18,587 in the first year in natural gas consumption as a result of the fans.”

Big Ass Fans, 2425 Merchant St., Lexington, KY  40511, 877-244-3267, www.bigassfans.com