One area of energy waste is something that a lot of people take for granted. One goes out and buys a fan or motor or it is included in equipment to move air or liquid so that an operation works, whether it is an AC unit or industrial process. We buy it, install it, and don’t think much about it. It works. However, there are several issues:

• Most fans and motors work on an all on/all off system. It is either working at full load or is turned off. What if operations do not need that much power? You have no choice. The fan or motor operates at the design speed only.
• To adjust flow, reduce the valve opening. But that takes work to regulate and, as important, the motor is still using extra energy above what is needed.
• It gets worse. Pumps and fans are often overdesigned (by well-meaning engineers) commonly by 15 to 20%, resulting in even greater energy waste.
• And also, wasted energy is often in the form of vibrations or dissipated heat, which reduces equipment life and increases maintenance costs.

It is like driving a car that goes so fast that you have to step on the break constantly to get to where you want to go. Wasted energy.

The fix for this problem is to anticipate the highest flow you need, procure a pump or fan whose maximum power meets that flow, and ensure it has a variable frequency drive (VFD) to enable it to operate at lower power during reduced needs with the valve kept fully open. Electricity reductions of over 50% have been achieved. In addition, many utilities offer incentives for some fraction of the capital cost of equipment with motors with VFDs for purchasing and using them.

And this fix particularly makes economic sense because the capital cost of a new motor with a VFD is relatively low (58% of a pump’s life cycle cost is energy usage). So a small increase in capital cost to bring energy costs down goes a long way.

In assessing opportunities to reduce energy usage and cost at your company, space, or building, consider equipment that contains and uses fans and motors, invest in assessing whether it is overdesigned, and replace equipment or just the motor with a new one, right-sized, containing a VFD for good cost savings.

CCES has the experts to help you assess your energy usage and develop energy conservations methods to help you save significant energy usage, peak demand, and costs. We also project manage to help ensure you procure and use new equipment that is properly designed by the vetted suppliers. Contact us today at karell@CCESworld.com or at 914-584-6720.