The cost of energy used in catering operations is considerable. The total energy consumption of Britain 's catering industry is estimated to be in excess of 21,600 million kWh per year.

The vast majority of caterers use gas or gas and oil as the primary fuel for cooking. This represents over 80% of energy used so in these cases, electricity accounts for about 20%.

From this 100% energy figure:-

• Schools, hospitals and Ministry of Defence organisations use more than 50%
• Over 30% of the energy is used in purely commercial catering establishments
• 17% in hotel restaurants and guest houses

The commercial sector, including hotels, spends over £200 million per year on energy. Energy costs in the non-commercial sector are also estimated at over £200 million per year. With recent energy cost increases, these figures are set to escalate even higher. With more effective use of energy savings of up to 20% across the industry are achievable which would lead to an overall saving of over £80 million per year (reducing national energy consumption by over 4000 million kWh per year).

Our moderately priced control systems iFAMS and Eco + plus systems costs little more than a single new item of cooking equipment and brings immediate improvements in energy costs and efficiency . You can expect between 15% and 40% saving in waste across the entire cooking operation.

That's £150 to £400 less in every £1000 getting spent right now!  

These are the main steps to consider taking:

 Step 1. Understand your energy use
Look at your catering set up and identify the major areas of energy consumption.
Step 2. Identify opportunities
Compile an energy checklist.
Step 3. Prioritise your actions
Draw up an action plan detailing a schedule of improvements that need to be made.
Step 4. Seek specialist help
It may be possible to implement some energy saving measures in-house but others will require specialist assistance.
Step 5. Make the changes and measure the savings
Implement these energy saving actions and measure against original consumption figures. This will assist future management decisions regarding your energy priorities.
Step 6. Continue to manage your energy use at your site
Enforce policies, systems and procedures to ensure that your business operates efficiently and that savings are maintained in the future.

Unnecessary Use is the Biggest Cause of Waste

It is common in catering establishments for all equipment to be switched on at the beginning of a shift and left running throughout the day. Not only is this extremely wasteful, but equipment left on unnecessarily generates heat, making a kitchen unpleasantly hot and uncomfortable to work in. All catering establishments could save energy by implementing a simple switch-off policy after providing staff with information about preheat times, control settings and good practice. Because catering is a relatively labour intensive activity, much of the potential energy savings relate to working practices.

But due to the high staff turnover in catering operations and the expense of setting up and running the ongoing training programmes which are necessary in order to maintain the required levels of discipline makes it too time consuming and impractical especially when there is a long term low cost solution already available and waiting that wont require training or leave suddenly and need to be replaced.

iFAMS the unique control system that does away with the human element- the root of the waste problem.

In addition, a range of technologies exist that can aid efficiency through improved control of the cooking process and the kitchen environment. In most cases, these will pay for themselves in less than three years and will go on to provide significant savings for most organisations.

Selecting, item by item, the latest energy efficient cooking equipment for the job will be expensive and time consuming but will not expel those already embedded wasteful practices which are at work in a busy kitchen. Because iFAMS starts saving energy straight away it soon pays for itself and will later help free up capital that could be used to fund these future individual energy-advanced items.

 Kitchen services

Variable speed drives (VSDs)
Kitchen ventilation does not need to operate at full speed all of the time and VSDs can help to reduce costs by enabling the output speed of the fans to match requirements at different service times.

iFAMS is the only automatic way to ensure complete control over excessive use of fans.

Consider specialised ventilation controls
Consideration should be given to the use of air quality and automate your ventilation control. Ensure closer control, provide substantial savings and enhance the kitchen environment at the same time.

Be 100% safe with iFAMS

Seek specialist help
Intelligent control over kitchen extract systems and the design of canopies is crucial to health and safety requirements as well as energy savings.

If you are unsure about the conditions in your kitchen consider seeking our specialist investigative advice before the expense of employing a designer/supplier.

genesiscontrolsLtd Consultation is part of the service we provide you with

Think Before Replacing Cooking Equipment

Saving energy does not mean you have to replace all or indeed any equipment. There are some very cost effective ways of spending just a little in order to gain some very effective energy savings.

For Example Ventilation and Extraction Canopies
Just the simple step of replacing the extraction fan and upgrading the ventilation generally i.e. filters can bring about a major saving in running costs when iFAMS control system is installed. Instead of replacing entire cook-runs with expensive ventilation systems a few well planned steps could stop most of the kitchen energy being wasted not to mention the generally improved atmosphere and increase in air quality.

By installing a more effective fan that is driven by more modern and up to date technology methods can:-
•  Actually save electricity whilst vastly out-performing the old fan
•  Improve cooking performance from existing equipment due to gas burning more efficiently
•  Increase the air quality enormously

With these cost effective measures and iFAMS installed you could reach that 15% to 40% savings target

Replacing an old oven for one that is going to use 5% less energy could never compare to installing an automatic control system such as iFAMS with its unchallenged ability to reduce the energy consumption of all the kitchen.

 

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