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Nick Beaumont-Jones

Green Pioneers: Chris Farrell, inventor of the Gas Saver

15 Feb 2010 | Filed under: Efficiency savings, Industry Comment, Technology

Boiler’s energy saving kit builds up a head of steam

When Chris Farrell returned to college for a plumbing qualification, he found that he had a problem not with the curriculum but the equipment, writes The Sunday Times:

The new boilers used in the class were meant to be energy efficient but actually wasted a lot of heat. The realisation prompted him to have a crack at designing a better one. Using a welding torch and scraps of sheet metal in his garage in Devon, he knocked together a device for making the boiler more efficient.
He spent a couple of years honing his idea before setting up a company, Zenex, with long-term friend Tony Billett to manufacture it. That was in 2002. Since then the pair have sold more than 4,000 Gas Savers and the company recently won a grant from the Carbon Trust to speed up the roll-out of a product that they claim can save hundreds of millions of pounds on domestic bills.
“Condensing boilers are supposed to be 90% efficient but they are not,” said Billett. “In one instance we found that efficiency was as low as 30%. We think the real efficiency of condensing boilers is 75% at most.”

The device is attached to the top of a domestic boiler and works by capturing waste heat from the exhaust gases to warm the water in the tank. These are then passed through a flue and pumped back into the system, which preheats the cold water entering the boiler. Crucially, though, the temperature of this water is kept below 50 degrees, giving a significant increase in efficiency over typical condensing boilers, whose performance deteriorates if the water is above that temperature. The result is a boiler that uses less energy.
Zenex is targeting the domestic and commercial markets. The company estimates a typical household will save about £78 annually and avoid emitting about half a tonne of carbon dioxide. Savings could reach as much as £300 to £400 over two to three years.
A number of recent licensing deals with the big boiler manufacturers Alpha Boilers and Baxi should help Zenex gain momentum. The company has also signed a deal with Immergas to supply the Italian market.
At £600 the Gas Saver will be too expensive for many and it doesn’t qualify for the government’s new boiler scrappage subsidy scheme. Over its life, however, Billett said it will more than pay for itself. “A customer could recover the cost in three to five years. Solar can take 20-40 years. If we take an old boiler out and put in the best-rated boiler with a Zenex Gas Saver, you could save 50% on your gas bill.”
Plymouth Pavilions, southwest England’s largest leisure centre, halved its gas bill, from £140,000 to less than £70,000, in the first year after the system was installed, he said.

For the full story click on: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/entrepreneur/article7017877.ece