Chris Franklin, Chairman at Ranheat Engineering Ltd, a leading UK manufacturer of wood combustion equipment, continues his series of articles exclusively for Furniture and Joinery Production. This month he writes further about Ranheat’s investment in Solar Panels.
The summer of 2026 will be remembered as a hot sunny summer; it turned out to be a perfect (if accidental) time to invest in solar electricity generation.
Ranheat is well known for manufacturing and installing industrial wood–fired boilers and warm air heaters. They also offer a wide range of purpose-made solutions to store the wood-waste prior to burning.
Ranheat have for over 20 years operated a two-shift system so plants can be worked on from 6.00 am till midnight. This gives better utilisation of machinery and faster manufacturing lead times.
Ranheat installed solar electrical generation in June this year, after a new roof was fitted to the factory in May. The required scaffolding was then used for both the new roof installation and the solar panels. The number of panels was more dictated by the size of the south facing roof rather than the electrical load on the building.
A 30 kW system was installed; this supplies all of the electricity needed during daylight hours. This has seen an average monthly saving of around £800 during June, July and August. Boilers Heaters and feed systems are literally being made using solar-produced electricity.
How’s that for sustainability!
One of Ranheat’s main machines is a High-definition CNC Plasma cutter able to cut plates up to 50 mm thick. Most of Ranheat’s systems use tubular heat exchangers; the tubes are welded into the tube nests that are cut out on the CNC Plasma cutter.
So, plants are literally manufactured using Solar produced electricity.
The most cost-effective way to fabricate systems is using sheet or plate steel. Rolled sections are expensive compared to sheet material per tonne, and a lot of energy is used in making sections.
So Ranheat can design systems that use folded and welded sections, with the manufacture of these sections using solar-generated electricity.
Ranheat customers have the knowledge that the plants they are buying are designed and manufactured in a sustainable way. All of the “skeleton waste” from the CNC plasma cutter is recycled back into steel by a specialist contractor.
Waste is kept to a minimum by using a “nesting” programme, which means small components are cut out from the sheets and stored for use in other systems.
Because Ranheat are a manufacturer, they are able to design systems using standard sheet sizes.
Ranheat systems are designed to run on wood waste that is a by-product of a wood machining and manufacturing process. They are specialists in the combustion of fine dusts from manmade boards such as Chipboard, MFC and MDF.
To many end users buying from a sustainable manufacturer is important, now the manufacturer can reassure their customers that even the equipment used to utilise their waste is using equipment that has been made as sustainable as possible.
In the words of the late Eric Morcombe “ Bring me sunshine”.
For further information on all types and sizes of Industrial Woodburning equipment from 75 kW upwards, contact Ranheat on 01604 750005 or [email protected]
Ranheat also make spares and service and repair other makes of woodburning boilers and heaters.
