As part of the development of the training facilities by Ealing, Hammersmith and West London Colleges, at their Southall Campus a new catering department was installed creating a requirement for a new training kitchen capable of teaching all forms of modern cooking including Asian, Chinese, European and Afro-Caribbean styles.
An initial design was produced based on the designs of existing local college kitchens but it was felt to be inefficient in terms of energy preservation and sustainability.
At this point “the concept works” were asked to get involved and develop an alternative design that utilised low energy alternatives in terms of design and equipment specification. Our brief was to achieve the maximum energy efficiency whilst maintaining the highest quality of teaching facilities.
One of the first challenges was the traditional preference for high fuel consumption gas Wok and Tandoor style cookers. There were concerns that the Asian / Chinese restaurateurs would not support the use of the much more efficient and safer electric induction woks and electric clay ovens if they comprised the catering capability
With this in mind we worked closely with the college teaching staff and local restaurant owners to develop a design and specification that was not only low in emissions but safe, modern and suitable for the training demands of the college.
Through “the concept works” thorough project management and expertise in equipment selection, the brief was successfully fulfilled. The kitchen is now installed and the total energy loading of the equipment has been reduced from 325.96Kw to 152.99Kw whilst still delivering the required level of teaching facility.
Based on the facility usage figures supplied by the college and the efficiencies of the equipment installed we estimate a differential of more than 700 kw/h per teaching day.
With 200 teaching days in an academic year this equals an annual saving of 140,000kw. In addition to this the estimates saving on reduced water consumption is 200,000 litres per year. These factors combined with our reasonable pricing policy and cost effective approach provide significant financial benefits that are simply too strong to ignore.
The catering industry is thought to waste in excess of 50% of the power it purchases. “the concept works” believes that with improved design and equipment specifications this figure could be reduced to 25% and without affecting the restaurants food quality.
That’s why the hope of the team involved in Southall Campus Training Kitchen project is that the principles developed in this Kitchen are adopted within the catering industry, especially within restaurant kitchens where the highest levels of co2 emission savings could be made without affecting food quality.
