The Environmental Damage Of Vending Machines Is Considerable

The environmental damage of vending machines is considerable. Vending machines, serve two main purposes. Their primary function is to provide a convenient way for people to purchase products or services throughout the day and night. The secondary function is to use the surfaces of the vending machine to advertise a particular product or brand.

Vending machines need to stand out and one way to achieve this, is to make sure they are brightly lit but the effect of having a number of fluorescent lights running 24 hours a day is considerable and if we take the average of 1 fluorescent to be 50 watts then the total power consumption of the estimated 1 million vending machines within the EC is 50 Mega Watts.

It is there for necessary to look at ways so products can be displayed without the large amounts of power. Pure Foods Systems have developed an energy management system which cut the power consumption of a vending machine considerably. The light system only requires typically 15 watts of power, which is only 30% of the power of a normal vending machine. In addition the lighting system can be programmed so it switches itself off during quite periods but is prepared to switch itself back on if it detects the presents of activity around the machine. Once the activity has ceased, the machine will then revert to standby modes.

By far the most important energy use of vending machines is when they are used for either cooling of heating. Pure Foods Systems have developed an energy management system which reduces the amount of power in use of cooling and a unique detecting system to decide whether a machine is being used or is purely on stand by use. The machine will then slightly increase the temperature of the drinks when the machine is not being used. It can readily switch itself into normal operations either at sets times or whether there is activity around the machine. If this system is widely adopted then the energy saving would be Hugh. What is more by fitting the Pure Foods Systems energy management system the life of the machine will be extended considerably and this will improve the environmental impact of the machine. There are large environmental and financial advantages of adopting this system.