32 swimming pools: this is how much water we save every year
40 000 cubic meters or 40 million liters – this is how much water Viessmann has saved at its Allendorf (Eder) site in recent years thanks to continuous improvement in its production processes. This is the equivalent of 32 swimming pools.
Allendorf (Eder), Mar 1, 2019 – Water is primarily used for cooling and partial cleaning, as a test medium, and in sanitary facilities. It’s main use is as cooling water, but, thanks to recycling systems, this is reused several times in many production processes.
Largest single investment delivers biggest water savings
With a total investment of 50 million euros, the technical center “Technikum” is not only a hotbed of research and development in the Viessmann Group, but also an example of how to use water as sparingly and efficiently as possible.
In addition to the endurance test benches, 19 test islands in the Technikum are supplied with cooling water from the technical center every day. There are two large water tanks here – one cold water tank and one hot water tank – which are each filled with 90 000 liters of water. From the cold water tank, cooling water is pumped into the Technikum in a closed circuit system. The cooling water is heated by waste heat from the test islands and flows back into the technical center’s hot water basin, from where it is returned to the cold water tank via cooling towers.
About 450 000 liters of water pass through the system every hour. In addition to the Technikum, the production facilities at the Allendorf site and the IT server rooms are also connected.
New sanding machine in Hof delivers huge water savings
The economical use of the resource fresh water is also very important in Hof. One example of this is the pretreatment process for floor panels. These are no longer washed in the powder shop; instead, they have been sanded on the underside since 2018. This change has saved 592 000 liters of water per year. Thanks to the new sanding machine, further savings have been made – 193 093 kilowatt hours of electricity, 637 281 kilowatt hours of gas, and 379 105 kilowatt hours of local heating.
Enhancement of the processes
Measures such as these have enabled sales-related water consumption in the Viessmann Group to drop by more than 40 percent since 2009. However, we are not content with this and are constantly enhancing our processes, geared towards the latest technological advancements.