The Study of The Effect of Awareness of Energy Conservation on Participation in Energy Conservation in Sawmills

Abstract

Sawmill is the one of the value added for Thailand GDP. After surveying over 100 sawmills in Surat-Thani province, 2 sawmills with similar size and similar working patterns were selected to study the effect of awareness of energy conservation on participation in energy conservation. Both factories have trained their employees regarding to energy conservation. The sawmill No.1 was selected to establish a working committee on energy conservation to carry out energy conservation policy, compared to the sawmill No.2 that without established energy conservation committee. The energy consumption was measured from both factories and used the questionnaire to evaluate the participation behavior of personnel. The results of comparison, the sawmill that have set up a committee on energy conservation showed that the staffs aware of the importance of energy saving on the level of moderate, and the sawmill without the committee has a low level of awareness and participate the energy conservation activity. On the result on energy usage reduction, the participation in energy conservation activities can reduce energy consumption by 19.69 percent and 7.39 percent for sawmill No.1 and No.2, respectively after training compared to the year 2018. After proceeding the policy on energy conservation, the energy consumption have reduced up to 16.44 percent compared to the period before the equipment change according to the policy, or reduce energy consumption by 29.25 percent compared to the operation before the training.