We are excited to share a new interview in our Expert Interview Series.
Thank you very much to long time vendor/partner Mr. Keith Knowles of Limpsfield for taking the time to contribute to our Expert Interview Series. We’ve performed many Cleaver Brooks/Limpsfield retrofits over the years and his expertise is remarkable. Keith has traveled the globe and it was great to hear from him on different topics outside of the burner world. Thank you very much, Keith for your willingness to partake. - Geoff Wilkinson, Jr.
I grew up in Caterham, which is in Surrey, England.
How did you get involved in the engineering world?
By accident. Originally, I wanted to build bridges so after I left school I went to construction college. I leant many things about brickwork and construction in general, but then my tutor mentioned that to build bridges I would have to travel all over the world (basically all the bridges that England needed had been built many years before I was born!). I didn’t like the idea of traveling all over the world, so I ended up working for local burner servicing company. I saw a “we are hiring sign” in their window and walked in and asked for an interview. The owner was in the shop, and I guess he liked me as he offered me the job after discussing how I rebuilt my motorcycle engine. The rest is history, and the ironic thing is I travel all over the world now and I love that part of the job.
What do you like best about working at Limpsfield?
Working at Limpsfield has allowed me to continue to travel around the world and continue to work with a fantastic customer base, many of whom I can call my friends as well as business partners. Also working here has allowed build a team of dedicated people who are like minded and want to win in everything they do, from the design and building of the best burners that we can, to selling them to our partners. But this is only part of running a company, we now have a production line and state of the art machinery that is typically used in Aerospace and Motorsport, bring this technology into the combustion industry is an incredible privilege.
How many employees work at Limpsfield?
I joined Limpsfield in 2005 and I was number 7 on the payroll. I am proud to say we have now have 50 full time employees.
What percentage of Limpsfield installations are burner retrofits vs. new boiler installations?
Limpsfield was developed to be a retrofit burner packages, but now we are supplying burners to many Boiler OEM’s on behalf of our partners. I would say approx. 25% would be on new boilers and the remaining 75% would be retrofits.
What are your thoughts on the big green movement with electric boilers and heat pumps?
I can see some benefit with heat pumps, but not so much with electric boilers at this moment in time. Major changes to infrastructure need to happen to make the use of electricity in our industry. And firing burners efficiently massively reduces harmful emissions to atmosphere and always has done. I have always been surprised how many inefficient burners are still operating currently. I think in time there will be a mix of ways we get our energy, and some will be electric, and some will be heat pumps (in the correct environments) and some new fuels will be fired.
We are aware Limpsfield burners can operate on hydrogen. What can you share about hydrogen operation?
We have been firing hydrogen for over 20 years. A Chemical company in New Jersey were flaring off their process hydrogen and asked us if we could fire it. So, we designed a combustion head to fire hydrogen and when the process hydrogen runs out they switch to natural gas firing. When we fired hydrogen 20 years ago, we never expected it to be considered as a new green fuel that it is today. This burner is still operating exactly the same today as it did 20 years ago.
Where is a place this job has taken you that you never envisioned?
Everywhere from the USA to Africa, to Asia and Europe, but it was the USA that always had a place in my imagination, probably since Starsky & Hutch in the mid 1970’s. This used to be shown on early Saturday evenings and I thought it was great and so cool, especially the Ford Gran Torino!.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I am into Football (or should I say soccer). My soccer team in the UK is Crystal Palace, who are a mid-table team at best, but my Dad took me to see them when I was 6 years old, and they have been my team since then. I also love Motorsport, watching Formula 1, IndyCar and the Le Mans 24 hours as well as smaller local race meetings. One of my early Motorsport heroes was and still is Mario Andretti, who drove the iconic British built black and gold JPS Lotus and became World Champion of F1 in 1978. Occasionally I treat myself to drive around the same racetracks that he did, and the adrenaline kick from this is awesome.