QHA_August-2021-Digital

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GREEN SAVINGS
QHA REVIEW | 30
When it comes to maximising the financial results for
a business there’s always two sides to the story –
revenues and costs.
Maximise revenues and minimise costs and you have
an efficient business performing at its peak.
Finding a way to minimise energy costs is the space
where Gold Coast company Building Tuner excels.
Building Tuner Director Mick Robinson said the Building
Tuner system worked by maximising the efficiency of a
building’s airconditioning and refrigeration systems to
ensure the equipment’s compressors were not running
unless absolutely necessary.
The Building Tuner module replaces the single air
temperature measure of standard systems with two
measures, one measuring the air temperature, and the
other the temperature at the coil of the airconditioner or
refrigerator.
If the coil is already cold enough to maintain the desired
temperature, the Building Tuner module tells the
equipment to keep working on fan only, delaying the
activation of the compressor until the coil temperature
drops to the point where compression is needed to
cool it down again.
In the hotel space the equipment is capable of saving
businesses considerable money.
Burpengary Tavern on Brisbane’s northside, has been
using the Building Tuner system since 2016.
The Tavern, which includes a gaming room, bistro,
function room and drive through bottleshop. When the
power costs started to rise, the management team
sought a solution via Building Tuner who installed
modules on three packaged airconditioning units
and three coolrooms, including the main bottleshop
coolroom. Another module was added to a new
coolroom when it was built in 2017.
The before and after energy consumption and costs
tracking by the owners showed that Building Tuner had
produced more than $20,000 in savings per year for
the business.
Mick said each module cost about $500 with the
number of modules required and the time needed
to install the modules being the variables in terms of
the cost to each business of having the technology
installed. The modules have a life span of five years
each.