Energy Saved is Capital Earned
Small changes equal big energy savings for Rochester-based Gauthier Industries
BY ANDREA LAHOUZE
Gauthier Industries President Mike Jensen is looking for ways to economize.
“The number one challenge right now for anybody in manufacturing and anybody in business in general is to control costs,” says Jensen. “One of the major factors that you can control is energy, whether it is through machines, lighting, gas usage or just being creative to find ways to cut those monthly costs.”
The Rochester-based manufacturer of sheet-metal fabricated parts got creative this year and shaved about $17,000 in energy costs alone off its bottom line.
“We looked at things that we could control right away; energy was at the top,” says Jensen. “Knowing that [energy costs] are either going to level or stay up, it was important for us to look at means where we could start saving.”
To start down the path of trimming the energy fat, Jensen and the Gauthier team made a series of conscious and seemingly simple changes throughout their two buildings. First, Jensen put forth a $25,550 capital investment to change out all the old, inefficient lights in both buildings and replace them with low-wattage high-bay fluorescent T8 lamps. While the upfront cost was significant, Gauthier received a government reimbursement of nearly $8,000 for installing the environmentally friendly bulbs, and with the savings in electrical costs, Jensen estimates the company will recoup its investment in just two years. Gauthier also installed motion sensor lighting in its restroom and office areas. This quick fix is saving about $200 annually.
A Make-Up-Air unit also adds to cost savings. “This unit has a variable speed drive which means that the motor will only use the amount of electricity that the demand is calling for,” says Gauthier machine maintenance specialist Jerad Clausen. “The unit creates a slight positive pressure in the building, which will reduce heating costs because we are not drawing in cold air when the doors are open. It also brings in fresh air, which benefits the health of the employees.”
As for the shop floor, “We installed a 75-horsepower compressor motor with a soft start,” says Jensen. “It now has a variable speed drive that uses only the energy that is called for.”
Gauthier also brought in a new E-Machine CNC turret by FINN-POWER for metal punching. The electric machine only uses power for its motors when its internal programming tells it to. This is in contrast to the company’s old hydraulic-powered model that instead used continuous power to keep the hydraulic pressure up.
“We certainly have not overhauled every machine or replaced all our hydraulics,” says Jensen. “But we do have some machines in place that certainly help the cause.”
For Gauthier, as for many companies seeking to go green, the cause isn’t only about the bottom line.
“The energy is immediate savings,” says Jensen. “That’s the key as far as looking at energy costs [and] being able to control them, not only from our business standpoint, but from an environmental standpoint.”