Practical advice from Manbat Industrial

As one of the country’s leading independent distributors of industrial batteries and related power storage equipment, Manbat Industrial – part of the ECOBAT Technologies Group – is able to supply the most appropriate individual elements to ensure the suitability of the overall package when it comes to the power storage related requirements of businesses. In addition, it has the largest number of service engineers and therefore is the only company to be able to provide a truly national service encompassing general battery advice, as well as sales and service support.

An example of the company’s practical battery advice comes with Saint-Gobain Glass, Europe’s leading manufacturer for float glass for the UK’s domestic and commercial construction markets.

The Manbat Industrial team, in association with Fronius UK, for which the company is a sales and service partner, assessed the fleet of forklifts used at Saint-Gobain’s Eggborough facility, in terms of a cost/emissions/ maintenance comparison against their existing charging regime. The fleet consists of some 20 forklifts and specialist glass moving machines, which are equipped with a variety of batteries and utilises a combination of chargers of various outputs.

The comparison took into account energy usage based on an average cost of 7 pence per kilowatt-hour (kWh), with a projected increase of 5% per year, distilled water based on an average cost of 30 pence per litre and an emission factor of 0.53 kgCO2 per kWh, over a five year period. However, the battery purchase price and cost of Saint-Gobain’s warehouse engineers were not part of the remit.

By examining the requirements and typical usage of each vehicle and then taking into account the capacity of the battery with which each is equipped – these range from 48v 660Ah to 80v 1240Ah, but all utilise standard technology – a specific model from within the Fronius Selectiva charger range was chosen to provide a realistic like for like comparison against the existing equipment, but with both using a standard charging lead of between 2.5 and 3m in length.

At the conclusion of the review, across all the vehicles, irrespective of their specific use within the Saint-Gobain facility, cost savings were made on the three elements for comparison, which amounted to real world savings of between £0.69 and £3.18 per charge.

Breaking down these headline figures, 86% of the savings came from energy and 14% water, but it is only by analysing them in terms of the whole business that the scale of the cost savings can be fully appreciated. The annual cost saving at the end of year one will be £33,365, which will increase to £68,143 for year two and by the end of the five year cycle, a substantial saving of £181,672, is the very welcome return.

Important though these financial savings are, it is the environmental benefits that provide the greatest returns to the wider community that really count. On this measure, the exercise will save more than one million kgCO2, which will make a very positive contribution to the environment.

Manbat Customer Services: 01743 218500

www.manbatindustrial.co.uk