Dundee City Council NDEE

We have extensive experience of delivering lighting upgrades in busy, public buildings and begin each project by working with the public and stakeholders to minimise disruption. This can be done through various ways, such as working outside core hours or creating "zones" where disruption is kept to a small area.

Our surveys concluded that lighting upgrades at the Dundee Ice Arena, Central Library, Unit T Claverhouse Building, DISC, McManus Galleries and Gallaty Street Carpark would reduce energy usage by over 600,000kW/hr per year and would fund themselves in under 8 years, making it the biggest contributor to reducing the council's emissions.

We oversaw the complete replacement of 5,504 fittings and converted a further 2,090 fittings to LED throughout the council's estate, with additional units provided to the Council's team for maintenance purposes. They also installed motion sensors where appropriate, which mean that lights are only activated during times of occupations, which further lowers energy usage. The old fluorescent lighting was removed and disposed of in accordance with Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment.

Overall the LED lighting saves 659,533kWh and almost 300 tonnes of carbon per annum. Alongside this the lighting system provides savings of approximately £70,000 a year, which gives a total payback period of 7.4 years, as well as reducing the amount of maintenance required.

Heating, Cooling & Ventilation are three areas where there has been significant technological advancements and not only are the products much more efficient and reliable than previous generations, the controls are more sophisticated in handling the complex needs of a building to ensure optimal comfort levels at all times.

The heating infrastructure was old enough to warrant several upgrades. At the Olympia Leisure Centre we were able to recommission three boilers. This process involved checking essential areas such as safety, but also ensuring it was set up to achieve maximum efficiency.

Another upgrade involved replacing 10 boiler burners with modern equivalents at the Dundee Ice Arena and McManus Gallery. On its own this upgrade will generate 62 tonnes of CO2 reduction each year.

While the Council's cooling infrastructure was relatively modern, there were still opportunities for improvement. We were able to replace two air conditioning units with modern units at the DISC, as well as the upgrade of fans in the air handling units at two buildings.

At the Dundee Ice Arena the perimeter exits were allowing heat to transfer between areas, which resulted in the air conditioning being activated more often than necessary. Our solution was to replace 22 fire door exits throughout the building, which stopped the heat leakage and reduced the need for air conditioning. Whilst this was one of the smaller upgrades, it still generates savings of 77,000kWhr each year and is a good example of how Vital Energi works to identify every saving possible. All savings are also independently verified  by third party experts.

Since the completion of the first phase , Vital Energi have been awarded "Basket 2" which will see them deliver further energy conservation measures across the Council's estate.