GenFree™ Case Study United Living

GENERAL SYNOPSIS

United Living, one of the UK’s largest construction companies, is committed to Net Zero operation by 2030 and is actively looking for ways to achieve this in all elements of their business, including the welfare they use to house their construction site operatives.

Boss Cabins recently worked with United Living to help lower their carbon emissions by replacing a traditional diesel-powered welfare cabin on site with one of our new GenFree units, a welfare cabin that harvests and uses solar power so effectively all year round that it has no need for a generator at all.

The 12ft welfare cabin was deployed on a United Living worksite on the Ewart Estate in South London for five weeks during April and May. Without a generator on board, all electrical items such as kettle, hot water, microwave, pumps etc. were powered entirely by solar energy. Compared to using a standard ‘eco’ welfare cabin, the project avoided over 667 kg of CO2 emissions during that period and saved 211 litres of fuel, enough to power over 500 homes for a day!

As the cabin was in a city centre area, another huge benefit was the 100% silent operation. With no generator, there is no noise. In residential areas, this is not only good news for workers onsite, but also for all the local neighbours.

Using a GenFree cabin had other less expected financial and environmental benefits. Unlike traditional welfare where the toilet is serviced once a week, a combination of rain harvesting, grey water recycling, water saving technology and remote monitoring of tank levels means that this cabin was serviced just once in the five weeks as opposed to five times, avoiding a huge amount of unnecessary time, expense not to mention the environmental cost and emissions vehicles visiting site.

Project Manager of United Living, stated:

“These are a very good unit and economical to run. They look and feel professional, well laid out both internally & externally, portraying a good corporate image for us. Cost to hire is a little higher but the cost is offset as you reduce elements such as diesel usage & services required making it not only better for the environment but more cost effective. It also offers 100% silence, which for us working in heavily built-up residential areas, is fantastic”.

RESULTS:

The occupancy monitors show that the unit was used regularly 5 days per week throughout the 5 week period. Since the hire project started on 13th April, the Generator Free cabin has performed perfectly, 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 (see table 1), with battery charge remaining high at all times, remaining high above 98.3% and recovering to 100% each day. (see table 2)

TABLE 1

TABLE 2

As there is no generator in this cabin, the only fuel used in the welfare unit is in the low-consumption heater which consumes only 0.25 litres of fuel per hour. Data shows that during the period, the heater ran for 19 hours and 40 minutes hours using just 4.9 litres of fuel.

Whereas a standard cabin toilet would be serviced weekly, the combination of rain harvesting, grey water recycling, large tanks and toilet waste telemetry in this GenFree cabin meant the toilet tanks were pumped out once during the 5 week period. This saved a total of £300 on toilet service visits, plus avoided the associated environmental costs of visits to site such as fuel use and emissions from the service vehicles.

When compared to a cabin of the same size and function, we calculate that by using this 12ft Generator Free Canteen on site in place of a comparable standard ‘eco’ welfare unit, United Living has on this project saved 211 litres of fuel and avoided over 667 kg of CO2 emissions during the 5 week period. This amounts to a direct fuel cost saving of £454*.

In addition, removing the generator from a welfare cabin has the following positive benefits:

• Removes the need to regularly attend the unit to service the engine and the environmental impact of those visits to site (fuel use, emissions etc.). Over the 5 week period, an average
• As well as cutting CO2 emissions, other harmful emissions such as NOx, Sox particulate matter etc. are dramatically lowered.
• Elimination of all generator-related outages and breakdowns. In welfare units, statistically most repair callouts are for generator issues and therefore these are avoided.

*See full data report for more details of how savings are calculated.

For more information, contact the Boss Sustainable Welfare Team on 01778 300475.

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