AmbiRad's Radiant Heaters Achieve an 80% Reduction in Fuel Consumption at Volvo

Volvo is world renown for its environmental consciousness, recently established a corporate goal to make all of its manufacturing facilities carbon neutral by 2012.  Additionally Volvo trucks have the U. S. Department of Energy Industrial Technologies Save Energy Now LEADER initiative which requires manufacturers to reduce their facilities energy intensity by 2.5% per year over a 10 year timeframe.

AmbiRad installed  60 High Efficiency VSX heaters in Volvo's Truck's NRV plant shipping building, replacing their warm air system.  The building is an ideal choice for radiant heating with it's high ceilings and high air change, as the radiant heater have a very quick response time.

The radiant heaters resulted in a headline 80% reduction in natural gas consumption, but the complete performance can be summarised as:

• Saving  61,000 therms natural gas per year.
• Saving 70,000 kWh electricity per year
• Saving  54 tons CO2 per year
• Saving $45,000-$50,000 per year
• Payback period 2.5 years

For details of this project please see the Volvo case study at the Department of Energy website.