Case Study
GenFree™ Case Study Plantworx
Boss Cabins were approached by Plantworx organisers early in the year as they were looking to make this years’ exhibition as sustainable as possible and wanted low-emission welfare cabins to use on site.
GENERAL SYNOPSIS
Plantworx Operations Manager Stuart Favill explains:
“When Plantworx had an on site accommodation need that had to tick boxes in terms of being as green as possible then there was only one place to go, Boss Cabins.
“Our operation required multi use facilities, 24/7 and with low impact to both the environment and the local community especially surrounding the event site. We approached Boss Cabins with our shopping list and they certainly delivered, professional, understanding with high quality cabins but above all, friendly and nothing was too much trouble.”
In order to help Plantworxx lower their event’s carbon footprint, Boss Cabins agreed to supply Plantworx with 4 of our new GenFree welfare units with no on-board generator as well as two of our solar-powered Deep Green units. The cabins were on site for 2 and a half weeks in total and used for both Plantworx and another event held the weekend prior.
Boss Cabins GenFree and Deep Green welfare units are almost wholly solar-powered and incorporate rain harvesting, grey water recycling and water-saving technology, with the aim of lowering fuel consumption, carbon emissions, water consumption and waste production of welfare used on site.
In both types of unit, all electrical operations are run from the batteries. In GenFree units, batteries are charged solely by solar energy. In the Deep Green unit, if extra charge is needed, a small 3.5kVA generator tops up the battery.
RESULTS
The units’ occupancy monitors showed that all cabins were occupied heavily during the period and the online data reporting also showed that energy consumption was generally very high. However, despite being occupied every day for far more hours and using more energy per day than we would expect with standard welfare cabins on an average construction project, all GenFree cabins performed flawlessly during the period supplying all electrical functions from solar power alone – lighting, hot water, kettle, microwave, USB chargers, 230V 3-pin power sockets, hydraulic deployment, water pumps etc. The solar-charging capacity of the cabin has easily covered all outgoing energy requirements, with battery charge remaining high at all times.
GENFREE CABINS
- GenFree 12ft Cabin 1: In use over 20 hours a day every day. Lowest battery State of Charge (SOC) – 73.6%.
- GenFree 12ft Cabin 2: In use over 8.5 hours a day every day with energy consumption 4-5 times higher than would be normally expected. Lowest battery SOC – 94.9%
- GenFree 12ft Cabin 3: In use over 10.5 hours per day every day with energy consumption over x2 higher than expected. Lowest battery SOC – 93.9%
- GenFree 12ft Cabin 4: In use over 6 hours per day every day. Lowest SOC – 97%.
DEEP GREEN CABINS
The Deep Green cabins also performed exceptionally well. The generator in the 16ft cabin only ran for 1 hour during the 2.5 week period and the one in the 24ft cabin did not run at all.
- Deep Green 16ft Canteen: In use 9.4 hours per day. Power used from solar 99.28%. Generator fuel used: 1.1 litre.
- Deep Green 24ft Canteen Office. In use 23 hours per day. Power used from solar 100%. Generator fuel used: 0 litres.
The only other fuel used was in the low-consumption heaters which consume only 0.25 litres of fuel per hour. Data shows that during the period, the heaters collectively ran for 60 hours using just 15 litres of fuel. In total over the whole 2.5 week period, just 16 litres of fuel were used between the 6 cabins.
By using the GenFree and Deep Green welfare units on the Plantworx site in place of comparable standard ‘eco’ welfare unit, we conservatively estimate Plantworx saved 867 litres of fuel and avoided over 2.7 tonnes of CO2 emissions during the 2.5 week period. This amounts to a financial fuel cost saving of £1863*.
Savings are calculated according to our usual formula comparing to a traditional ‘eco’ 12ft Canteen with a daily generator runtime of 4 hours, a 16ft canteen with a runtime of 4.3 hours and a 24ft Canteen Office with runtime of 6.28 hours , as you might expect in a normal situation. However, with the actual occupancy and energy usage levels at Plantworx being far higher than usual, the savings could realistically be a lot higher than those stated above.
Stuart Favill, Operations Manager, Plantworx:
“When Plantworx had an on site accommodation need that had to tick boxes in terms of being as green as possible then there was only one place to go, BOSS Cabins.
“Our operation required multi use facilities, 24/7 and with low impact to both the environment and the local community especially surrounding the event site. We approached BOSS Cabins with our shopping list and they certainly delivered, professional, understanding with high quality cabins but above all, friendly and nothing was too much trouble.
“At times we felt guilty for the high usage but none of the units faltered one bit. Going forwards, now we have a good working relationship, BOSS Cabins will be our go-to supplier especially for being green, clean but certainly not mean!”
To find out more about our generator-free cabins and how they could be helping your worksite to achieve huge savings and a silent, almost emission-free environment, call the Sustainable Welfare Team on 01778 300475.
