Introduction
One of our larger Clients, operating from warehouse style properties, demonstrates a variety of merchandise on purpose designed displays which are serviced by several socket circuits throughout this area at the entrance of the building.
Understanding the Client’s issue
It had come to the Client’s attention that where they had relied on staff to turn off the displays promoting their TV, Laptops and speakers these were being left on all night and wasting electricity. This was despite each bank of sockets having a single point of isolation installed for ease.
Our Proposal
Together with the Client, we identified the reason for the electrical wastage as being fundamentally a result of human error. To overcome this issue and provide a permanent solution that was reliable and effective we decided we needed to look at removing the reliance on the staff and incorporate automation. To do this, we designed, built and tested an automatic shut off cabinet consisting of a timer, contactors, relays and selector switch to set different states, namely Auto/Off/Manual Override.
This cabinet was constructed in our premises workshop and fully tested for functionality before being installed within the Client’s warehouse in close proximity to the distribution board serving the display socket circuits.
Once installed, existing circuits were intercepted and connected into contactors within the cabinet that were controlled by a timer. The timer was then set for a 12 hour window which straight away halved the total time the displays could be left on for.
We identified the need for flexibility within the design which we achieved by incorporating the selector switch for the different modes. This allowed the client to have all displays off for the whole day at times like Christmas or to have them on permanently for overnight display relocations.
Conclusion
We were able to work alongside our Client to analyse a recurring issue that resulted in wasted electricity and identified the root cause. By doing this we were able to design, construct and implement a complete solution that could be installed and forgotten about, leaving the Client with peace of mind that their displays will be off during closed hours without fail.
Carrying out the building and testing of the control cabinet in our workshop meant that we were able to attend our Client’s site and install it in a very efficient and streamlined fashion as we knew the controls would work as required before we arrived. This limited down time of the circuits and ensured continued service of the displays before the store opened.
