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New! - We currently have planning permission from the local authorities to erect a wind turbine on our site in Crossmaglen. This will be in conjunction with industrial units that we hope to commence building at the end of 07. We also hope to extend this readily available wind energy to our Carrickmacross site in the future. |
Conserving energy and the environment
has now become a very important part of the future for everyone.
10 years ago very few businesses’s recycled cardboard
and plastic. Now it is the norm. The shopping bag levy was
in our view a step in the right direction. Our approach in
our new premises is to embrace these changes. Energy is like
air and water. When it is out of reach it is when you most
value it.
These are some of the energy saving features that we are
incorporating within our store.
All the rainwater from the roof of the building is piped
to an underground tank. This water is pressurised and used
for the flushing of all toilets within the building. The car
washes which are not yet constructed will use this water as
well and will also recycle it. We will lose some water through
evaporation and if there is no rainfall we will use our well
on site to top up the tanks.
To heat the building we have two sources of energy. There
are 12 metres of solar panels situated on the roof of the
building and we are also using a system designed by Coolrite
Refrigeration, Baileboro, to capture the heat from the refrigeration
packs. This heat, naturally created from these two sources
is used to heat all the water for the entire building which
is stored in four 1000 litre tanks ready for use.
There are a number of areas within the shop that are heated
by way of under floor heating using the hot water that is
stored in these tanks. One area is the frozen food and dairy
wall section. Traditionally supermarkets have been heated
using blow heaters which also blow the cold air out of the
fridges and freezers thus leaving these areas very cold and
causing the fridges and freezers to run inefficiently. By
using under floor heating in these areas this will not occur
and should make it more comfortable to shop in.
We are also using a blow heater system for the rest of the
shop which uses a copper coil within the ducting system and
also the heat from the water in the storage tanks.
The solar panels system works most efficiently when there
is long hours of daylight during the summer and the refrigeration
is working at its hardest during the summertime. During the
winter months you have the greatest need for heat but lack
of sunlight and less demand on your refrigeration due to the
change in weather. We have looked at other forms of energy
to fill this gap in the winter months. This is when you have
the harshest weather and the greatest source of creating natural
energy by means of wind. We are currently looking at erecting
a wind turbine.
We have also increased the Kingspan cladding in the roof
by an extra 6mm to hold the heat better.
For the lighting in the shop we have used hi output low energy
lighting which is very impressive.
We hope you the reader finds the above interesting and if
anyone would like to look at the system that we have installed
we would be more that happy to show it.
We all have to play our part in conserving energy whether
it is by using a 40 watt bulb instead of a 60 watt bulb. If
everyone did a little it would become a lot. We cannot just
leave it for someone else. Hopefully when you shop in our
store you will have the comfort of knowing that we are trying
to do our bit for the environment.
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