Gas bills slashed

The EasiHeat steam-to-hot-water system provides hot water for staff at the production facility in Worksop. The site employs up to 2000 people, who produce 3.5 million packs of sandwiches, baguettes and wraps each week. Staff must adhere to a rigorous daily hand-washing regime, before starting work, after breaks, and each time they change from one filling type to another. 

EasiHeat is based around a compact plate heat exchanger and provides instantaneous hot water at constant temperatures. Spirax Sarco says that because it does not store water like a traditional shell-and-tube storage calorifier, which must store water at 60°C or higher to aid the prevention of Legionella growth, less energy is needed to heat the water. This enabled the site to reduce its annual gas bill by £30,000.

Further savings will be achieved by reduced maintenance costs. Greencore’s two calorifiers needed to be stripped down regularly for insurance inspections, a task that typically took several days. The EasiHeat system does not need dismantling for insurance inspections, saving substantial time and maintenance costs.