LED vending machine lights save power, costs and the environment

An everyday part of life is drinks vending machines and water coolers. Another everyday fact of life is that today’s increasingly environmentally conscious society has put new emphasis on how our daily actions affect our climate, our health and the long-term sustainability of our resources.

These two seemingly separate things are, in fact, joined together because of the stress now being placed upon the specification and development of products that are benign to the environment. As organisations with the ability to modify many everyday actions, manufacturers need to respond to these challenges with environmentally-friendly products and services.

Abbeychart, as the specialist supplier of components, spare parts and consumables to the vending and pure water industries, is developing a range of eco-friendly products that meet these challenges.

Typical of these products is Abbeychart’s revolutionary low power long-life LED lighting system now being used for the illumination of vending machine display panels as an alternative to fluorescent tubes. These safe light emitting diodes reduce power consumption by a dramatic 80% and give seven times longer life, significantly reducing a vending machine’s carbon footprint as well as cutting maintenance times and costs.

If you thought that ‘green’ issues in vending were only about heating or cooling water and cups, the significance of this LED lighting development to the vending industry is clearly explained by Abbeychart Operations Director Mark Dalling.

“Vending machines operate 24/7 and are being used in ever increasing numbers and places,” he says. “Accordingly, improving the energy efficiency of vending machines is of the highest importance.

“While such measures as using low temperature tube ballasts or occupancy sensing devices to turn lighting off and on as needed are currently being taken to reduce the energy consumption of machine lighting, the basic technology of fluorescent tubes remains. They still use considerable power and emit unwanted heat.

“Furthermore,” he adds, “when tubes fail the consumers assume the darkened machine is out of order and operators lose out on sales until maintenance can be arranged.”

A small Abbeychart LED display panel has a power consumption of 3.7W compared to a traditional fluorescent consuming 17 or 18W, including the lamps and starters. Total LED system life expectancy is 70,000 hours against the 8,000 to 10,000 hours for those ‘old’ tubes, whose starters are good for 10,000 hours or 6,000 starts.

That’s a lot less electricity and a lot more life to give the LEDs a ‘green’ light! The direct savings from reduced energy consumption, while significant in their own right, will be put in the shade by the indirect savings from the elimination of maintenance over an eight year period.

But that’s not all there is to it, adds Mark Dalling: “The reduced environmental impact of Abbeychart's LED display panel will be highly attractive to manufacturers and operators, consumers and environmentalists alike.”

Pilot programme for environmental management in catering

Abbeychart has joined a pilot programme with the UK’s Catering Equipment Suppliers’ Association to establish a framework by which the companies can introduce an Environmental Management System into their operations.

The CESA programme, in conjunction with White Young Green Environmental, is designed to give the UK’s catering sector a proven methodology to reliably gain EMS accreditation to BS 8555 and ISO 14001. This will enhance the sector’s environmental reputation, reducing risk and ensuring compliance with legal and client requirements.

“As an early adopter of an environmental approach to our activities, we are delighted to be part of CESA’s pilot programme,” announced Mark Dalling, Operations Director of Abbeychart. “It is leading the way in simplifying what can be a complex process for smaller businesses, and we hope to see such initiatives extending out from the catering sector and into our vending sector.”

Carbon neutral water filter solves environmental puzzle

Filters clean and purify water, as everyone knows, but did you know that new developments in filtration can also play a part in keeping the environment clean? And the story culminates with the development of the ultimate green ‘carbon neutral’ water filter.

While water quality in Europe is generally of a good quality it can still be improved upon for consistent beverage quality and safety as well as equipment and brand protection. So the need for water filters on POU water coolers is now generally accepted.

There are many filtration products on the market for this, ranging from the older style drop-in unsanitary cartridge systems with a screw top lid to the newer Sanitary Quick Change (SQC) encapsulated style.

While the older type water filters are not operator-friendly and do not give foolproof safety when changing elements, the housing stays in place and although the elements are usually just dropped into a waste bin and large plastic housings need proper disposal when no longer needed, these filter do offer a fair degree of working recycle-ability.

Sanitary Quick Change water filters are significantly more convenient, with fast and easy element changing into a hygienic head assembly that usually features an integral or optional automatic water shut-off valve. But there has been something of an environmental problem with these - until now.

The problem with SQC systems has been disposal of the old cartridge, since separating out the inner filter media from the outer cartridge has thus far been deemed uneconomic. Therefore, arrangements were not usually made to recover the old cartridges, typically made from a plastic like polypropylene or even aluminium, which would inevitably find their way into a landfill.

So a big question has been how to get the joint benefits of the older style drop-in filter’s recyclability and the Sanitary Quick Change system’s advantages.

Perhaps even more importantly, there has been the puzzle of how to develop a system that meets the environmental needs of companies who want to go green or ‘carbon neutral’ but see the exercise as a prohibitive expense.

Abbeychart in conjunction with Shurflo has recently developed the new EcoAquaFlow filter platform which incorporates the very best aspects of the older drop-in style with all the benefits of SQC systems. The big innovation of this system is that the filter media cartridge is returned to Abbeychart to be fully recycled through a documented system.

The EcoAquaFlow can therefore be deemed a ‘true carbon neutral water filter’ as the housing is made from stainless steel and can be sanitised and re-labelled for use after the life of the cooler. Since there are no moving parts to wear and the outer housing is not subjected to water pressure it will last the full life of many water coolers.

The cost/benefit model therefore stacks up and the filter platform can compete with current market offers which do not include the recycling, so that everyone benefits from the development of this environmentally friendly product.

Seen as integral to Abbeychart’s Environmental mission, it is hardly surprising that the EcoAquaFlow water filter was featured at the recent AVEX Show as a finalist in the cooler awards best sustainability category.

Further information from Peter Best, Abbeychart Ltd, Unit 1b White Horse Business Park, Stanford in the Vale, Faringdon, Oxon SN7 8NY

Tel: +44 (0)1367 711900
Email: sales@abbeychart.co.uk
www.abbeychart.co.uk

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