Lindum Group achieves impressive energy savings with HeatingSave

Lindum Group was founded back in 1956, and manages new build, refurbishment, and maintenance projects across a variety of sectors. Lindum works for both private and public sector clients, securing work through negotiations, tenders, and public sector frameworks. Today, Lindum directly employs over 600 people, with offices in Lincoln, Peterborough and York.

Construction is the core activity of Lindum, but the company has developed a range of support services, to meet both Lindum's and its clients needs. These include waste recycling, plant hire and fleet maintenance, roofing and cladding, bespoke joinery, and security.

Lindum first started considering the implementation of an energy-saving system at its business park in Lincoln around 10 years ago and has since installed a HeatingSave system on the business park. Lindum Sustainability Manager, Warren Glover, recalls that the company's main target, at the time, was to "enable cost savings" and "streamline the functionality of the ambient heating system".

The company's Lincoln premises, Lindum Business Park, previously relied on a central heating system powered by three high-capacity gas-fired boilers and featured a large number of radiators. Given the fact that they were looking for a superior level of control over the heating system, Lindum decided to install a HeatingSave Building Management System, managing a separate boiler and specific area of the offices.

The HeatingSave Building Management System enables users to save energy by setting up specific heating pattern control so the heating is not on during weekends or holidays unless the building is being used. The intelligent controller at the heart of the system 'self learns' the heat-loss profile of any building so that it can switch on the heating later if it is warm and also switch off earlier if it is cold.

Other important features worth mentioning include gradient control of room temperatures at different times of the day, hot water priority varying boiler temperatures automatically, as well as automatic summer hot water decision between electricity and gas, whichever is the cheapest.

The system was put in place by HeatingSave engineers and Warren recalls that no major issues were encountered during either the hardware or software installation processes.

Warren received in-depth training regarding the use of the system's various features and functions post installation, noting the training was "useful and informative."

When asked whether the HeatingSave system is used at its full potential, Warren said: "Yes, they are. The systems have helped Lindum save quite a bit of money on fuel bills, although I can't really provide a perfectly accurate figure, I'd say that the HeatingSave systems help us save a significant amount of money on our annual fuel bills."

Aside from the savings the systems generate, Warren's favourite part of the HeatingSave system is the simplicity", noting "I was also quite impressed by the graph display."

The system installed at the Lindum Group premises is connected to a PC running the HeatingSave software, that enables a superior level of control over the central heating system's functionality. Furthermore, since it's running off a PC, the HeatingSave system also allows Lindum's user to access the diary function for changing heating patterns — a very good feature, according to Warren.

Ever since the system was installed, Warren only had to call up the HeatingSave help desk a couple of times in order to solve some minor issues. He said: "The service the operators provided was good. They were all very informative." The information the help desk provided was so efficient, the HeatingSave Operations Department never had to visit the Lindum site in order to repair the system.

When asked whether he would recommend the HeatingSave Building Energy Management System to other companies, Warren said: "Yes, it is a very good system and I love the simplicity of it. In fact, it makes money saving easy. The bottom line is it's everything we thought it would be."