GBE Compare Group N13 Hand Driers

GBE > Encyclopaedia > Code > PASS > Compare > G#982 N#1003

GBE Compare Group N13 Hand Driers
About:

N13 Sanitaryware

GBE Compare Group Conclusions

GBE Compare establishes Key Performance Indicators KPIs, Environmental Performance Indicators EPIs and Social Performance Indicators SPIs for each product group.
GBE Compare places Energy & CO2 as the EPI and noise as the SPI for electric hand driers.
KPI Cost of use should equate to the energy per dry.
GBE Compare collects data on as many products as we can find easily; applies any calculations necessary to determine comparable data.
GBE Compare then sorts the results in each EPI, KPI and SPI to determine average or normal performance and determines which are above and below the average performance.
GBE Compare then compares individual products to determine where and how they are better or worse than the average or normal.
GBE Compare encourage manufacturers to bring their latest product data to improve the collected data.

N13 Electric hand driers: high and low speed blowers, heated and unheated

On this occasion GBE Compare Group compared:

56 electric hand driers, high and low speed blowers, heated and unheated.

GBE Compare Group took manufacturer or reviewer declared data:

declared power in watts or kilowatts
declared drying time in seconds
EPI determined power per dry
EPI declared power per 1000 dries
KPI if product is eligible for the ECA Enhanced Capital Allowance scheme
KPI if product is on the ETL Energy Technology List
Determine if those not on the list are ‘Or equivalent’
EPI declared CO₂ outputs per dry
EPI declared CO₂ outputs per 1000 dries
SPI manufacturer declared noise levels dBA at 1 m
SPI if product is on the Noise Abasement Society Quiet Mark list
Determine if those not on the list are ‘Or equivalent’.

Average or Normal Performance:

On this occasion the averages determined were:

EPI Calculated power per dry: 0.0045 kWh
EPI Declared power per 1000 cycles: 4.5 kWh
KPI ECA Enhanced Capital Allowance scheme: Average: 4.5 kWh
EPI Declared CO₂ outputs per dry: 2.3 kgCO2/kWh
EPI CO₂ per 1000 dries: 599 kgCO2/kWh
SPI Declared noise pressure levels: 72.5 dBA at 1 m

Greenwash Alert:

One piece of effective greenwash is that it takes a lot of energy to heat air so its better to blow water off the hands with fast air;
but some manufacturer use almost as much energy blowing the air faster as the others use to heat it.
In the absence of comparable data manufacturers can be optimistic in their marketing and sales talk.
There is some considerable greenwash going on about some below average products.
In the absence of knowledge specifiers can be fooled by the greenwash.

Conclusions:

Facilities Management catalogues describe 2-2.5 kW hand driers but manufacturers are getting down to 0.5 kW whilst still being effective driers.
Some manufacturers develop a model and sell it, other manufacturers create a model and continually develop and refine it; one is on their 8^thgeneration of refinements; they are way ahead of the competition.
- If you product is standing still, its effectively going backwards.
Enhanced Capital Allowance ECA threshold set too high: only 4 of 56 fall below this threshold.
- There is no Market Transformation Programme (MTP) going on here.
- Only 7 models are better than average in all these KPI, EPI & SPI.
GBE Compare Group encourage manufacturers to bring new or better products to drive down energy and CO2 demands and improve efficiency to reduce noise.

Follow up actions:

Manufacturer’s products that fall below average EPIs are being removed from GBE
Manufacturers of best performance products will be encouraged to be in GBE
Manufacturers are encouraged to bring new or better modes forward for GBE Compare Group and to show in GBE

Robust Specification:

When one manufacturer produces many products or many variants of one product, whose performance varies enormously from variant to variant, it is essential that the exact model name, reference prefix and reference suffix is in the contract specification.
NBS would argue that is enough, GBE argue that the performance characteristics, the reasons for choosing the product and the model, are also included, so there is a basis for checking deliveries on site and a basis for comparison in the event of substitution; all of this on site or at the point of substitution without reference to other documents.

Performance Standards:

“Unless workmanship and performance are defined as part of the Contract Documents

then any control over the end result becomes entirely speculative.”

Neil Pepperell MD © RIBA Indemnity Research Ltd.

Performance Certificates

“If … test certificates  are claimed, make sure  they are current and  relate to the proposed product,

not another in the range”

Liability alert No. 17

A03 16^th June 2013