PKL, the leading portable kitchen and catering equipment hire specialist, serves the world from its base in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. The company supplies catering facilities to high profile events including the Olympics, Commonwealth and the Asian Games. Wherever you find catering facilities, from feeding thousands of athletes at major sporting events and soldiers in Afghanistan down to music festivals, hospitals, schools, prisons and care homes, the chances are PKL has supplied them.
Supplying facilities on this scale means that PKL is acutely conscious of the need to reduce energy consumption and increase efficiency across the performance of its fleet in order to keep customer running costs down. This led in 2011 to the decision to improve the energy efficiency of its existing portable kitchen fleet. The project was taken up by PKLs highly skilled team of engineers who worked together to devise ways to improve the energy footprint of the PKL fleet.
As a result, PKL launched the new eKitchen in March 2012. All new units are now built to this specification and all units coming back for refurbishment are upgraded.
Lee Vines, Sales and Marketing Director at PKL says: Were aware that these days it is important for us to enable our customers to reduce their energy usage and costs. With all the upgrades made to our eKitchens as well as the renewal of our IS014001 accreditation in December last year, we are hoping to show just how seriously we take our environmental responsibilities. The eKitchen can save over £350 per year in electricity alone when compared with our standard facilities.
Technical Improvements
The new eKitchens now have an energy performance rating of B42, compared to a rating of D47 achieved by the standard units.
Under testing, electricity consumption for a single unit in January decreased from 60kWh/m2 to 25kWh/m2. Results show that an annual saving in electricity consumption of £358.00 can be achieved, based on a 45 hour week occupancy. The BER (Building Emission Rate) prior to the improvements was 220.07kg CO2/m2. The BER after the improvements is 94.76kg CO2/m2, providing an annual saving of 125.31 kg CO2/m 2, demonstrating a 57% saving.
Interest in the units since the March launch has been high with a number of eKitchens already out on hire within the UK. New PKL eKitchens now feature:
Latest technology LED lights
Fully insulated roof with PIR fire retardant insulation
Fully insulated floor with PIR fire retardant insulation and heat reflective membrane
Double-glazed serving hatch
Thermostatically controlled space heater
Stop and go taps for wash hand basins
Energy efficient electric water heater
Wall panels with rockwool mineral fibre insulation
Water and electricity metering
Optional solar energy power supply
Energy saving tips for all equipment
While their existing fleet of portable kitchens still lead the market in terms of product features, including automatic fire suppression, food safe walls, strengthened floors and standard carbon monoxide and dioxide testing, investing in green technology is a natural development in PKLs quest for efficiency, both for itself and for its customers. Customers are increasingly looking for energy saving features and PKL has anticipated this demand and proactively developed a new model that will, in time, be rolled out across the fleet.
The company also invests heavily in its staff of 80, offering relevant diplomas and training courses. In 2011, 29 members of staff began working towards Diplomas in Waste Management as part of the on-going effort to reduce the amount of waste the company sends to landfill. The renewal of the companys IS014001 accreditation in December 2011 also emphasises how seriously the company takes its environmental responsibilities. PKL is planning to upgrade many of the units in its current fleet to meet their eKitchen standard over the next 12 months.
For more information visit www.pkl.co.uk or call 0845 8404242.
