St Heliers Correctional Facility laundry has been enjoying nearly $4,000 in savings a year since embracing new ozone technology back in August 2007.
William Holland, Manager of Industries at the facility, is pleased to share the many benefits they have experienced since the OTEK Laundry System was installed in August 2007.
The laundry services 250 inmates and is run as a commercial operation as well as providing an educational environment for inmate education in TAFE NSW courses. It runs 10, 50 Kg machines and was typically running 42 washes every day. Since installing the OTEK system, William has measured the changes in water, gas and power consumption.
Previously, water consumption had been at 4.37 mega litres per year but this now sits at just 2.78 – this means they are saving over 30,000 litres of water every week which not only cuts their costs by $2,385 each year but has a positive environmental impact.
As the ozone technology delivers better results but in cold water, the requirement for hot water washes has been reduced. This has impacted gas consumption by 32%, or, in dollar terms, nearly $12,000 each year. Just as importantly, it also means the need to maintain, repair and replace hot water systems has been eliminated. William also found that the new system delivered much faster wash and drying times. The impact on electricity usage was a 38% reduction ($1,448 saving per year) but it also means that the laundry has increased efficiency with the average per day washes going from 42 to 61. Over time on weekends during periods of excessive demand is now a thing of the past.
Whilst William has been impressed with savings on the facility’s utility bills, he has been pleased to see improvement in the quality of the wash both in whiteness and the feel of the linen. In fact they have stopped using fabric conditioner altogether which used to cost them $1,449 each year.
And, with the move from hot to cold water and using less concentrated form of bleach, linen life has increased 30%.
Having a new system that delivers all these benefits has been positive for efficiency and for the facility’s budget management.
However, William says the true value of the OTEK system is the fact that it provides compliance equal to that provided by thermal disinfection; a standard that has previously been lacking in other ozone technology laundry systems.
William has been happy to share how impressed he is by the system and by the team at OTEK – so much so that he is confident and keen to recommend rolling out the system to other laundry facilities.
