Controlling Equipment With TunnelWatch Lowers Utility Costs By 14.4%, System Pays For Itself In Under Two Years
- TunnelWatch from DRB Systems and Yund’s Car Wash, Wooster, OH
Challenge: To improve operating efficiency and lower utility costs.
Solution: Replace existing tunnel controller with to-the-inch TunnelWatch controller.
As with baseball and football, operating a profitable car wash is often a “game of inches.” Take the case of Yund’s Car Wash, a full-service operation in Wooster, OH, which realized big savings in operating costs by installing the PC-based TunnelWatch controller from DRB Systems.
Unlike traditional pulse-driven controllers, TunnelWatch controls equipment by the inch, not by “counting” pulses. This feature allows TunnelWatch to turn equipment on and off with much greater precision. When equipment is controlled more precisely, water, electricity and chemicals are used more efficiently, to lower operating costs.
Yund’s Car Wash demonstrated this point in dramatic fashion, when owner Brad Yund replaced his standard controller with TunnelWatch. An independent engineering study, conducted for DRB Systems, found that Yund’s cut its chemical and utility costs by $361 a month ($4,332 annually) after installing TunnelWatch, enough to pay for the system in under two years.
How did TunnelWatch achieve these savings? Simply put, our to-the-inch controller minimized wasted cycle time, so equipment was activated when it was needed, instead of cycling up too early, or staying on after a vehicle had passed. As a result, Yund’s was able to use water, electricity and chemicals more efficiently.
According to the engineering study, TunnelWatch was able to cut 4.5 seconds off the average drying time of a vehicle by activating and deactivating dryers with greater precision. This played a big role in helping Yund’s reduce its monthly electric costs by 32.3%.
Yund’s was also able to lower its water and sewage costs by 1.73 cents a vehicle. Cleaning chemicals and waxes were also used more efficiently. Following the installation of TunnelWatch, the wash’s monthly chemical costs dropped by 16.7%.
Bottom Line: TunnelWatch, with it’s precise to-the-inch controls, won’t waste money by spraying water and chemicals into empty space.
