Glenbrae is a luxury clothing brand with an outstanding reputation for producing consistently high quality garments.
Based in the West Yorkshire mill town of Slaithwaite near Huddersfield, Spectrum Yarns designs and produces a range of fine knitwear, marketed under the Glenbrae brand, including jumpers, sweaters, pullovers and slipovers.
The owners of the company were increasingly concerned that the cost of heating and powering their extensive Victorian mill was becoming unsustainable and putting pressure on the viability of the 50-year-old company.
We were approached by the company to evaluate their problems and propose a solution, which resulted in the design, production and installation of a combined heat and power system. At the heart of the system is a V12 engine that can be powered by natural gas or biogas, which runs almost silently, that is 95% efficient.
The combined heat and power system provides all the electricity the company requires and the ‘waste’ heat from the production of electricity is used to provide heating and hot water.
The investment will be paid back within just one year and the company will be saving at least 50% of their annual energy costs. Their CO2 emissions will also be significantly lower than when they were powered from the national grid.