Greetings!
Welcome to our November newsletter, this month we are looking at a recent system we have designed, built and installed for a testing and certification company based in Watford, England named BRE. Please see link to the BRE website below, BRE Web Site
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Extraction Fan Control Saves Energy at BRE, Watford
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BRE, based in Watford near London operate the largest 'burn hall' in Europe. The burn hall is used to carry out flammability testing on various domestic, commercial and industrial products. BRE previously used three 185kW two-speed AC induction motors controlled by star-delta starters to drive large fans to extract fumes from the burn hall after testing has been completed. As the extract fans were being run at full speed, the airflow was controlled by three iris values. These valves constrict air flow from the fans as required without reducing the energy required to run the fan motors. Very inefficient.
BRE approached Motor Control Warehouse with a view to replacing their star-delta starter system with an inverter drive control system. Motor Control Warehouse in conjunction with BRE, have designed, built and installed a fully automated inverter control system using three Invertek Optidrive HVAC, 160kW, IP55 inverters. The inverters are housed in purpose built glass fibre weather resistant enclosures. Please see below.
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The existing two-speed motors have been adapted for inverter control and have been fitted with specially designed output inductors between inverter and motor to reduce the dV/dt (fast rise and fall) of the switching edges seen by the motor. The new system was integrated in to BRE's existing automated extraction control system. With the systems iris valves fully open the airflow can now be controlled more precisely by the speed of the extract fans. The speed of the fans has been significantly reduced. This greatly reduces energy usage and gives a short payback period for the upgrade. Please see link below to MCW website,
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