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Electric Hot Plate used in a diamond-processing unit
is one of the vital devices and incidentally the biggest consumer of
electricity in the diamond-processing industry. However, the fact
that the hot plates that are commonly being used by the diamond
industry are highly in-efficient and are responsible for
unproductive energy consumption. |
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About 2 lakh such hot plates are in use by the
Diamond Industry of Gujarat. Each hot plate is rating about 1000 watts.
Assuming 10 hours daily operation a single hot plate consumes 10 units
of electricity, i.e. 20 lakhs units per day and 7000 lakh units per
annum for 2 lakh hot plates.
Energy Efficient Diamond Hot Plate
This design developed by the Savalia Research Centre has a potential of reducing the energy being consumed by conventional Diamond Hot Plate by almost 50 %. The new design hot plate would consume 5 units/day instead of 10 units/day. The salient feature of the new design are given below :
- High conductivity hot plate material
- Lower rating heating element
- Automatic temperature control
- Light weight
- State of art insulation
- Lower no-load consumption
Summary of Comparative Performance Test conducted by GEDA
| Brand |
No-Load
kWh |
Full Load
KWh |
Amperes
(@240 V) |
Thermostatic
Control |
| Efficient Diamond Hot Plate (MS) |
0.11 |
0.37 |
2.33 |
Automatic |
| Efficient Diamond Hot Plate (Brass) (@) |
0.08 |
0.27 |
2.10 |
Automatic |
| Conventional DHP |
0.37 |
0.71 |
4.05 |
Manual |
(@) - katoras made of brass were used in place of, normally used, mildsteel resulting in further saving upto 60% as compared to conventional model.
Potential for Electricity Conservation
If all the 2 lakh conventional hot plates are replaced, by the new energy efficient design, reduction in the total load on the power grid can be expected to be of about 80 megawatts (assuming 40 % saving). This means avoiding an expenditure of Rs. 360 to 400 crores for setting up additional power generation facilities (assuming Rs. 4.5 to 5.0 crore per mW) against an investment of Rs. 30 crores on replacement cost of new design hot plates.(cost of hot plate @Rs. 1500/- per plate).
About 25000 nos. of hotplates were replaced with the efficient design hotplates during the Demonstration Project executed by GEDA. The conventional hotplates have practically been withdrawn from the market as a result of the introduction of the new efficient hotplates developed by Savalia Research Centre, Ahmedabad. Number of other brands have entered the market.
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