Implementation of Metal Casting Best Practices - EERE - U.S. ...

will require that the facility have an employee receive training (at a nominal cost) and expend
time to evaluate the system. These costs have proven to be nominal for other facilities when
compared to the potential savings they offer.
Lighting
The lighting within this facility needs to be re-evaluated. During the site visit, the assessment
team noted unnecessary illumination. For example, there were six overhead lights on in an
unoccupied bead storage room, two overhead lights on in an unoccupied cooling water room, and
three overhead lights on in an unoccupied boiler room. Keeping these rooms illuminated wastes
electricity and raises energy costs for the facility. The assessment team recommended that this
facility install occupancy sensors in these rooms. This will allow the light to turn on only when
someone is present in those rooms. The assessment team estimated the cost of installing these
sensors to be $1,700 and the payback on this investment to be less than two years.
Install Cogged Belts
One of the leading recommendations by the IACs is to install energy-efficient cogged belts on
motor systems. This recommendation has the average implementation cost of $1,263 with an
annual pay back of $2,169. Cogged belts are more efficient because they slip less than smooth
belts. They can save 3-5% of the energy normally used to operate a motor and have a longer life
because they run cooler. Based on the savings they can offer, the assessment team recommended
that Lost Foam Facility-2 replace the belts on the fan drives in the bead storage room with
cogged belts.
Stack Melters
Like many of the other aluminum facilities that participated in this project, Lost Foam Facility-2
should consider replacing its reverberatory furnaces with a stack melter. With the increasing
price of natural gas and the low efficiency achieved in using a reverberatory furnace, the
economics of this replacement may make sense.
3. Conclusion
Being a new plant, Lost Foam Facility-2 already has incorporated a number of the Metal Casting
R&D results into its initial design and practice. Plant management sought the advice of the Lost
Foam Consortium when designing the facility and purchasing its equipment. However, the
facility could benefit further from analyzing additional energy-saving opportunities involving
compressed air, process heat, and motor systems using the ITP suite of BestPractices tools.
Furthermore, the facility could fine-tune its process with the assistance from an IAC assessment.
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