50% reduction in boiler energy use: how WMG brought Eco Smart Systems’ idea to life
50% reduction in boiler energy use: how WMG brought Eco Smart Systems’ idea to life
Eco Smart Systems specialises in providing innovative and eco-friendly heating solutions for their customers. Through advanced renewable technologies, they help homes achieve greater energy efficiency while reducing environmental impact.
Challenge: Eco Smart Systems needed expert support to design their product
Inspired to make traditional boilers more eco-friendly, Eco Smart Systems envisioned a cutting-edge isolation plate design that could be retrofitted into any boiler.This design would create distinct zones within the boiler, allowing users to heat only the necessary zones of the hot water tank, instead of the entire tank at once; dramatically reducing energy consumption whilst ensuring optimal performance.
To validate the concept and assess the thermal performance of the plates, Eco Smart Systems sought the support of WMG to bring the idea to life.
Solution: WMG’s manufacturing experts created and assessed designs
To transform their concept into a working prototype, Eco Smart Systems teamed up with WMG’s manufacturing experts, Dr Kylash Makenji and Dr Tony Zeng.
Dr Zeng worked with Eco Smart Systems to design the isolation plate in CAD, visualising the different zones and running simulations to test thermal performance. He compared design options, analysing their ability to thermally isolate the zones and provided actionable recommendations.
Dr Makenji took the lead in exploring and recommending various material options for the isolation plate, further assessing their thermal performance to ensure optimal efficiency.
WMG’s experts found that:
- The isolation plate successfully created a distinct temperature gradient between the zones.
- It effectively insulated each zone, storing more heat within each, and thereby reducing overall energy loss.
With the design validated, the team collaborated with West Midlands boiler manufacturer, Integras (part of multinational Rheem Group), to create a prototype product. Satisfied with the prototype, Eco Smart Systems moved forward with safety and certification checks, which were quickly approved, before bringing the product to market.
Impact: The final product can improve EPC ratings and reduce boiler energy usage by up to 50%
The collaboration produced an isolation plate design with the potential to reduce boiler energy usage by up to 50% in boost mode compared to traditional boilers.
This innovation could lead to significant energy cost savings for customers and potentially improve Energy Performance Ratings (EPC) by up to 11 points, potentially moving the ratings into a higher band.
Eco Smart Systems plan to sell 250-500 units per week of this new product, which could generate an additional £6-13 million in turnover per annum.
“Working with WMG has massively accelerated our prototyping process,cutting new product development time and costs by at least 75%. The expertise of WMG has been instrumental in bringing this product to market, and we’re excited about the future.”
Tony Gayden, CEO, Eco Smart Systems.
As a direct result of the successful collaboration, Eco Smart Systems is exploring additional projects, such as increasing the energy efficiency of showers.
“The smart system idea from Eco Smart Systems is truly amazing, and it’s been great to collaborate with them on developing and validating the system. This successful project has brought new products to the market that offer customers more sustainable, energy saving solutions.” - Dr Tony Zeng, WMG.
Eco Smart Systems has also joined WMG’s Net Zero Innovation Network, benefiting from a roadmap to Net Zero and access to funding for sustainable projects.
To see how WMG can support your manufacturing needs, get in touch today.