A modern heating system for a leading woollen mill with traditional roots dating back to 1837
Background to Abraham Moon
Abraham Moon & Sons was founded in 1837 in Guiseley, West Yorkshire. In the early days, Abraham Moon would sell yarn to families or pay weavers to create fabrics from his yarn before selling the finished goods to the local community. After years of building strong relationships with the community, the business expanded.
In 1868, he had a three-storey mill built in Guiseley. The Yorkshire location was perfect for wool production, with soft water ideal for scouring fleece and a newly built railway to Leeds running directly behind the mill.
In 1902, the original mill burnt to the ground but was quickly replaced with a larger, single-storey mill. It also became a fully vertical operation, meaning every stage of production – from processing raw fleece and dyeing the yarn to weaving and finishing the fabric – took place on-site.
This is the same mill that continues to operate today. It remains one of the few fully vertical woollen mills still in use in Britain, with most modern wool production now spread across multiple facilities.
The heating system at Abraham Moon
Just before Christmas 2022, Del Sol received a call from Abraham Moon making an enquiry about updating the heating system. Based in the factory premises rebuilt in 1902, the mill was operating an ageing heating system fed from a central boiler.
The heating system consisted of a collection of inefficient steam-heated blowers that were in urgent need of replacement.
The project was exactly the kind of challenge we enjoy at Del Sol.
In January 2023, we visited Abraham Moon and carried out a full tour of the building and its existing steam heating system. The company was planning to replace the old steam boiler in the Dye House with a new modern steam generator and a standby boiler. This meant we needed to find an alternative way of heating the production areas that relied on the existing steam heaters.
Scoping the project
Step One: Survey and scoping project
Our first step was to do a full survey of all the heating and pipework in the building. We met and spoke with the main engineer, the production staff and shift managers to get to grips with the challenges caused by the old system, how it was managed and where the main issues were.
Our first proposal prompted the need for further discussion with the MD, Chief Engineer and Financial Director. We discussed the benefits of putting a computer-controlled energy management system in place and the need for more heaters than we had originally suggested. With an updated proposal, the project plan and quotation was accepted and started at the beginning of April 2023.
Step Two: Pipework
The pipework throughout the mill was a mammoth task, not only for the size of the factory production areas, but because of the age of the building. This required some smart thinking in order to ensure the heating could get to right places without disrupting the day to day working of the factory.
The pipework took around six weeks to complete.
Step Three: Installation of heaters, ducting & recovery units
With the pipework in place, the next big task was the installation of new heaters, ducting and the placement of heat recovery units. This proved challenging as some of the heaters had to be brought into some of the small plant rooms in kit form and then built up in situ, replacing the old steam heaters.
Steps Four & Five: Controls and gas connection
The remaining aspects of this first phase of the project with Abraham Moon was to fit the computer-controlled energy management system (using our partner Clarke Controls) and make the final gas connection.
The system was up and running and fully operational by 14th August 2023.