Agri-Fab, a manufacturer of lawn and garden equipment, installed an energy monitoring system from Versatech to track utility usage across its facilities. After reviewing the data, Agri-Fab discovered issues like ovens running during off-hours and compressed air leaks that were wasting energy. Fixing control errors on the ovens and shutting off air to unused areas is expected to save $118,326 annually in avoided electrical and gas costs. The case study demonstrates that regular monitoring and data review can help identify wasted energy and lower utility bills significantly.

1. GREG GILLESPIE, JUNE 19, 2015
Agri-Fab in Sullivan, IL manufactures a wide
variety of lawn and garden products for
customers such as John Deere, Husqvarna, and
for their own Agri-Fab brand. The company’s
products, which include lawn sweepers and
“almost anything you can pull behind a garden
tractor”, are sold at many home and garden
stores, including Lowe’s, Tractor Supply,
Menard’s and Rural King.
Agri-Fab, like many companies, was spending a
lot of money on utility costs and couldn’t pin point
usage to any one machine or piece of
equipment. When Versatech, LLC’s Greg
Gillespie approached the company to do a pilot
program in early 2015, and company leaders
saw the results of a Versatech-led energy
assessment at the company, Agri-Fab was ready
to try out Versatech’s Mitsubishi monitoring
system. This monitoring system connects to any
type of machine and then feeds energy usage
information from the machine to a computer
software program on a real time basis.
Greg led the Versatech team in installing meters
and sensors on three air compressors, two paint
curing ovens, a dry off oven, and two electric
mains in February of 2015. The installation
involved networking the metering and sensor
equipment to a webserver connected to the
company’s network. Versatech supplied the
software hosted by the webserver and trained
the company on its use to facilitate real time data
and reporting options.
In May 2015, the company noticed some
anomalies in natural gas usage on their paint
ovens when reviewing historical data. It was
discovered the ovens were running during off
shifts and temporarily on the weekends.
Production schedules were not consistent with
this usage pattern. Upon further investigation,
the beginning of these irregularities were
consistent with the time of an upgrade to the
ovens’ control systems. When the upgrade was
installed, various control sequences were in
error; hence, causing the excessive use of
natural gas and electricity during non-production
time frames. Once the issue was recognized,
appropriate measures were taken and the
sequencing errors were fixed. This resulted in
an avoided annual electrical cost of $10,169 and
annual natural gas cost of $57,287 to Agri-Fab
due to implementing the proper sequencing
throughout their paint lines.
During the same data review, Agri-Fab noticed
air compressor usage during hours when
production was not being run. Agri-Fab
addressed this issue by shutting off a valve
feeding compressed air to their fabrication area
of the plant. Once this issue was addressed, the
How Exposing Hidden Utility Costs at One Central Illinois
Manufacturer Will Save Them Tens of Thousands Annually!

2. compressor delivered 35% less air, crediting the
remaining air usage due to leaks throughout the
plant. When air compressor leaks are present,
equipment has to run harder to make up for the
leaks. When leaks are addressed, electrical
usage drops. Fixing the leaking air compressors
is expected to result in $50,870 of electrical cost
avoidance annually.
Combining the cost avoidance resulting from
recognizing and addressing electrical and gas
waste results in a total annual avoided electrical
and gas cost of $118,326! And, Agri-Fab has
just started the process of monitoring data and
addressing spikes and other anomalies, so
additional avoided costs are expected.
Many times, companies assume that high utility
expenditures are a cost of doing business and
that not much can be done to reduce these
charges. However, the above case study proves
this untrue. Once your company has the
information to implement energy savings
measures and utilizes monitoring equipment to
collect real time energy usage data, you have the
information to identify sources of wasted energy
and address them, just as Agri-Fab did.
Agri-Fab combined the use of monitoring
equipment with a regular review of the data by a
team of facility engineers and technicians. Once
issues are identified, the team root causes the
problems leading to excess energy usage, and
implements timely corrective actions to rectify
the issues.
Versatech, LLC is ready to help your company
realize similar benefits! Versatech’s Energy
Management Services Program Manager, Greg
Gillespie, offers energy assessments to identify
energy conservation measures and can help
your company develop and manage Energy
Management Strategic Plans to ensure
consistent data review. The plan will also
include timely root causing and corrective action
development to realize benefits quickly. Contact
Greg today to find out how your utility budget
could be reduced dramatically by using
Versatech’s Energy Management services and
tools!
Greg Gillespie
Versatech Program Manager
Energy Management Services
P: 217.342.3500 X245 C: 217-663-0368
greg.gillespie@versatech1.com