Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales: Automatic Utility Monitoring for All Sites Project

Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales, committed to reducing carbon emissions and water consumption, has an Automatic Utility Monitoring project for all its sites.

This project provides 'day plus one' data for gas, electricity and water consumption for each site; the data is available on the web site run by Stark, the nominated data collector.

The project provides information for each site and its utility consumption profile, ensuring that each action to reduce carbon can be monitored, measured and displayed to staff.

This is an inclusive project - all managers, site energy champions and front line operatives have been involved. Senior management committed to an 'Invest To Save' programme and implemented recommendations from energy surveys carried out by the Carbon Trust.

Part of that programme was to provide automatic monitoring and metering data for all utilities for all sites, and site staff have been trained to access this data to monitor and manage their site water and fuel consumption.

If there is a water leak it can be quickly identified and rectified to reduce waste as soon as possible. If the boilers run when not required this can be investigated and the museum is resolved to operate boilers only when necessary to satisfy site conditions. If the electricity consumption is high, it can identify by how much and when this occurs. Any excessive consumption can be designed out by analysing building use or introducing energy saving solutions.

The outcome has been dramatic; site carbon reductions have reduced over a twelve month period by up to 20%, with each site demonstrating carbon savings.

The project has momentum and will be vigorously pursued for each site to assist staff in identifying the minimum carbon required to maintain its front of house activities and to continually reduce carbon consumption for the future.

One slight drawback was that the implementation period was longer than had originally been expected, and if the project is to be replicated, organisations will wish to explore the capacity of their chosen contractor. 

A spokesperson for the National Museum said:

'This activity of automatic monitoring and measuring of utilities must be fundamental to achieving carbon reduction for all organisations.

'The cost is nominal compared to the carbon savings the organisation will achieve, and will in a comparatively short time yield a financial payback.

'Through this project we have realised how important this facility is to Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales in reducing its carbon footprint.'

Contact: Nigel Williams, Head of Visitor Services at the National Museum Cardiff, tel 029 20573253.