MOTOR INDUCTION ENERGY EFFICIENCY: AC induction motors are the most common piece of electro-mechanical engineering on the planet

and account for over half of all electrical consumption world-wide. Motors are widely used in both commercial and industrial manufacturing processes. Unsurprisingly, almost every product we buy is made with the aid of a motor and therefore the cost of running motors has a direct impact on the cost we pay for all the products we purchase.

The Problem
Motors can be incredibly wasteful due to the inefficient and rather basic design of the motor, which has changed very little in well over a century. The conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy by electromagnetic means was demonstrated by the British scientist Michael Faraday in 1821. Around the time of the industrial revolution it seemed to matter little what they cost to run now we know better and as it turns out electric motors are not just the worlds biggest user they are also the worlds biggest abuser of energy. The purpose of an AC Induction motor is quite simple. The National Grid provides a convenient source of power, in this case electrical energy, and the job of the motor is to convert that power into a usable form namely; mechanical energy (torque). This can then be utilised in a facility remote from the source of power generation to turn, pull, push or drive something as part of an industrial or commercial process. The efficiency of the motor can be summed up in its ability to convert as much of the electrical energy it consumes into a job of work. In terms of inefficiency (wasted energy), almost all losses can be evidenced in the form of unwanted heat, noise and vibration. When a motor manufacturer calculates, and subsequently publishes their figures on the efficiency of their range of motors, those calculations are often based on ideal conditions that are rarely encountered in the field. Motors can waste significant amounts of energy for any combination of the following reasons:1. When mated to an appliance, motors are all too often oversized to the next available model for obvious reasons they can never be downsized. Sometimes an appliance manufacturer will use a standard motor for much of their range of products in order to obtain the best possible price point and for ease of storage and on-site servicing/replacement. We have seen cases where motors have been 100% oversized. 2. Almost everywhere there is evidence of fluctuations in power supply on the National Grid. The fact remains that despite assurances to the contrary from utility companies the motor designers know these figures can vary considerably and they have to design their motors to work under the worstcase scenario i.e. when the voltage is below the nominal figures. In reality, if a motor was not able to cope with a reduction in available power even for a relatively short period when fully loaded it could easily burn out worst still catch fire! 3. The duty cycle on the motor will often vary dramatically, with variations ranging from 100% loading down to 0% loading. While there is a measure of reactance within the motor windings it is widely accepted that the humble AC Induction motor has no way of intelligently adjusting the amount of power it consumes in relation to the job of work it does. An escalator for example has to be able to carry two adults on each step in an upward direction. Often there is only one person to move which means substantially less energy is needed - add to that the fact that half of the worlds escalators

are going downhill and you begin to understand the potential for waste as motors cannot adjust consumption for these extremes. 4. When starting direct on-line, an AC Induction motor can draw massive inrush currents, typically between 6-9 times normal full load current. This can have a very negative impact on maximum demand charges. Furthermore, this problem can translate to 300% increases in shock load transferred to the mechanical transmission systems often leading to premature mechanical failure. At the other end of the duty cycle a lightly loaded motor will become a much more inductive as opposed to reactive load. This is often the major cause of poor power factor at site level, and along with increased peak demand can massively increase punitive charges in some cases doubling the kilowatt units charged for the billing period. Poor power factor can also have the effect of shrinking the amount of available power on a site. Losses in the system create a number of further mechanical problems when a motor draws more power than it is able to convert to mechanical energy (work), then the excess has to be immediately and irreversibly converted by the motor to another source of energy namely; heat, noise and vibration. This has a further negative effect on the performance and life of the equipment leading to increased maintenance costs and reduced life expectancy.

The Solution
Following extensive research and development, Modern Energy Solutions Ltd PLC have made considerable advances in the field of intelligent motor control technology. The dynamic software utilized in the iMEC single-phase motor controller is an integral part of both the patent protected ACES and CUES Hybrid solutions. As a motor goes through its duty cycle (in response to demand changes at the motor shaft), there will be a proportional effect on the values of the power that is being drawn. iMEC uses this feedback from the motor as it comes along the power cable to allow the motor to act as its own load sensor. iMEC will constantly monitor the load on the motor every 100th of a second and ensure the motor has only the exact amount of power it requires at any instant in time to do the required job of work. iMEC will also enable the motor to run as a much more resistive load thereby further improving power fact or quality. Initial starting of the motor is made much smoother thanks to the introduction of controlled acceleration. Power is ramped up gradually at each starting cycle, which minimizes wear and tear in addition to reducing maximum demand charges often associated with starting loaded motors. In effect iMEC electronically sizes the motor to both its application and load cycle every fraction of a second, ensuring the motor uses just the right amount of power it needs to at any instant in time no more no less! The iMEC range of Intelligent Motor Controllers will: Save up to 40% in energy costs Reduce peak demand charges Improve power factor Reduce heat, noise and vibration

Reduce maintenance costs Extend equipment life

Modern Energy Solutions Ltd manufacture a range of iMEC solutions for single-phase applications up to 20AMP. A full range of proprietary 3-Phase applications is also on hand with special orders available ranging from 3-1000 kW.

LIGHTING ENERGY EFFICIENCY:

Maybe we should change that question and ask, what businesses do you know that do not use lighting? Im sure the answer is NONE! For how would you run your business without lighting?
We have come a long way since the first development in electric lighting by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1801, but despite huge scientific advancements, we still rely on artificial lighting which we continue to pay for even when it is not required. Do you realise that the incandescent light bulb used by millions upon millions of people around the globe are actually only 10% efficient, which means that 90% of the electricity used is wasted. But how can you waste electricity? Physics law states that you cannot destroy energy, you can only change its form. In the case of lighting this wasted inefficiency is transferred into HEAT, resulting in your air-conditioning units working harder and longer all because of inefficient wasteful lighting. Consider these startling facts about lighting Lighting consumes 19% of the worlds electricity generation. Emissions measured in CO2 from lighting is equivalent to 70% of global emissions from passenger vehicles. In many commercial buildings lighting accounts for 40% or more of their electricity costs. Lighting produces three times more emissions than from aviation.

Consider this... when the sun is shining and lighting your office, or you walk out of the room, do you make a conscious effort to reduce your energy costs and switch off the lights? Or are you like the majority, and are just too busy. LESS provides the solution we all need, by reducing CO2 emissions, reducing your costs, at the same time and arguably the most important factor, by maintaining and improving comfort levels. We can do all of this by adding intelligence to your existing lighting solutions. Adding intelligence to meet the lighting output required for any given scenario. This works by dynamically working with software algorithms, adjusting the florescent light fitting either in a group or individually to put only the required lighting lux/lummen level required, and then when a preset level is reached we will automatically switch the lights off, saving 100% of the costs. So as you enter through your office door at dawn your lights will automatically switch on to full brightness but as natural sun light emits through the windows, we are able to automatically, gradually dim the light fittings to maximise any natural sunlight while still maintaining a constant, perfect, working light level (lux/lumen).

During the day, clouds will pass over the sun reducing the natural sunlight emitting into the room, at this point the lights will adjust their brightness accordingly. All of this will happen without you even noticing but typically saving you 35% across your lighting costs by adding intelligence. A simple and effective solution. Now ask yourself, who do I know that could benefit in reduced lighting costs? Everyone!

LESS is the solution. COOLANTSENERGY SAVERS:

Refrigeration systems account for around 20% of the worlds energy consumption and we have considerable practical experience to demonstrate there is real potential to achieve dramatic reductions in energy costs - improve equipment performance and reliability - at the same time providing more accurate control of the temperature of stored food products. CUES is a range of energy saving and temperature monitoring products designed to improve the efficacy of refrigeration systems. They are used primarily in commercial applications.

The Problem
The main objective of commercial refrigeration systems is to store food products at a pre-determined temperature in order to extend product shelf life. In almost all cases a thermostat is incorporated in the enclosure that measures the temperature of the air in the cabinet, which in turn directly switches the compressor on or off in a series of cycles. The theory is simple by maintaining the temperature of the air inside the cabinet at a preset level it is anticipated that the food will also take on the same temperature. However, because air has a completely different thermal characteristic to almost all food products it is quite normal for the owner/operator to routinely take temperature samples of the stored food products via a hand held probe, indeed in many regions this is considered essential so as to ensure food is correctly p reserved. So we know that air temperature is not an accurate measure of food temperature. Air entering a refrigerated space has very little thermal energy compared to the significantly greater thermal mass of most food products, and yet each time a door is opened and warm air comes into contact with the thermostat, there can be a fairly immediate response which leads to the compressor being energized even though the temperature of the food has not changed. Furthermore each time a compressor starts up there are high energy demands on the motor windings and the motor will initially work harder to build up the suction gas pressure as the cooling cycle begins, in the meantime however the minimal thermal energy that entered the enclosure will have already started to be absorbed into the significantly greater thermal mass within the enclosure which means that in most cases, thermal equivalence is achieved by a natural entropic process rather than forced cooling by the compressor. Does this mean that the compressor is sometimes running needlessly with no beneficial effect on the temperature of the food stored in the cabinet? In many cases yes! A further problem exists within the design of the compressor itself.

In almost all cases a single ac induction motor is used to drive the compressor and also move the coolant around the system. Compressor motors are generally manufactured in a series of standard convenient sizes, and are designed to cope with the worst case scenario, for example; over stocked cabinet with warm food products being added, doors left open for extended periods, unusually high ambient temperature and variable (often low) power supply on the National Grid. Also, the load profile of the motor is such that it requires significantly more energy in the first few minutes following start-up than it will for the remainder of the cycle, however the motor has no intelligent way of adjusting the amount of energy it draws during each phase of the cycle. All of this contributes to a motor and compressor that is oversized by design, uses more energy than it needs to, under normal operating conditions. Does this mean that when the compressor is required to run it is drawing more energy than is really needed to complete the job of work? In almost all cases yes! In a nutshell this means that the compressor is often running when it should be off, and on the occasions when it is required to run it is almost always using more energy than it needs to.

The Solution
Enigin PLC have developed a unique combination of synergistic products that directly target these problems in a new holistic way. These groundbreaking solutions are the result of thirty years experience in both temperature and intelligent motor control technology. They are now subject to patent applications, trademarks and copyright design.

CUES Accurate Food Temperature Measurement

As part of the CUES solution we provide a patented Food Mimicking Thermostat that is installed in intimate contact with the existing air thermostat. This means we are now able to ensure the compressor only runs when there is a genuine need. The net result is that the compressor will now energise less often but when it does run it will provide longer and deeper cooling cycles. Typically startups will be reduced by between 50-70%. The CUES Food Mimicking Thermostat contains a specially blended food simulant wax that has the same thermal characteristics (thermal conductivity and thermal mass) as typical food products. It is inherently food safe, simple to install and enables much more accurate control of food temperature. To enable accurate calibration of the thermostat and to ensure we are maintaining food at the right temperature we have also developed a CUES Food Block Probe. This enables non-invasive accurate measurement of the stored food within the cabinet. The CUES Food Block Probe is normally positioned permanently alongside other food products inside the cabinet. A portable hand-held meter is then simply plugged into the block and the temperature can be easily read and recorded. Because we are measuring food rather than air, often we are able to set the thermostat one or two degrees higher with total confidence that we are maintaining the required core temperature, leading to even greater savings.

CUES Intelligent Motor Control

Enigin PLC have considerable experience with intelligent motor control across many sectors, both commercial and industrial manufacturing processes. However there are several anomalies within hermetically sealed refrigeration compressors that warrant special attention in order to maximize on the energy saving potential. By measuring the torque demand on a refrigeration compressor motor it can be clearly seen that once the motor has overcome its initial start-up phase the demand backs off significantly as the motor simply maintains the momentum during the remainder of the cooling process. However because it has no intelligent way of matching the input power to the load demand it means that the motor will continue to draw more energy that it needs to. The first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be converted to another source, in this case heat. This means that the excess current being needlessly drawn by the compressor motor is being converted to counterproductive heat. To further compound the problem in a hermetically sealed compressor (which most are) this wasted heat is then being added to the coolant the compressor then has to run longer to overcome its own inefficiency all the while exacerbating the problem. This also means that when the wasted heat is finally purged from the refrigeration system it then enters the ambient air around the cabinet and in a warm climate has to then be removed by the air-conditioning system. The CUES intelligent motor control technology will constantly monitor the performance of the motor and ensure only the right amount of energy is used during each phase of the duty cycle. Also, since the CUES Food Mimicking Thermostat is providing fewer but deeper cooling cycles, the addition of the CUES Intelligent Motor Controller means that the results are combined with truly synergistic benefits. Now the motor will spend proportionally more of its run time in a lightly loaded state (due to the fewer start-ups) where the best savings are achieved because only the precise amount of energy will be supplied to do the job of work no more no less! The CUES range of Chilled Unit Energy Savers will: Save up to 30% in energy costs Provide more accurate food temperature control Enable easy non-invasive measurement of food temperatures Reduce heat, noise and vibration within the compressor Reduce maintenance costs Extend equipment life

The Next Generation

Enigin PLC are currently in the final stages of developing a range of products and solutions that combine into an Eco-system. This is a range of load side energy saving products that are connected to an Eniscope Hybrid Real Time Energy Management System, thereby providing remote web-enabled monitoring of individual items. This means we will be able to automatically identify energy leaks at a granular level.

The new CUES Hybrid, due to be launched in 2013, will combine all of the benefits of the complete CUES range into one simple product. In addition CUES Hybrid will also communicate to the WWW via Eniscope in real time on important matters like; Compressor run time and temperature, internal food temperature, ambient room temperature, equipment efficiency and specific running costs. CUES Hybrid will also be able to provide pre-emptive maintenance alerts well ahead of a problem physically manifesting itself. This means that owners, operators and engineers can be automatically notified via email or SMS when either a compressor is under duress and requiring maintenance or the temperature of stored food being served from a display cabinet is at risk of not being adequately cooled. All of this information will be archived in a cloud-based system - 24/7/365 - and any combination of salient reports can be accessed and provided at site level to satisfy the most stringent compliance requirements while at the same time providing optimum management and control of all the energy used in the building.

AC ENERGY SAVER:
In many buildings air-conditioning systems can be amongst the biggest consumers of energy putting considerable demands on the local and national grid during the hottest days of the year. ACES is a range of air conditioning energy saving products that have been designed to significantly reduce energy running costs while maintaining, and often improving comfort levels. Their primary applications are found in the commercial sector and larger private housing.

The Problem
The primary purpose of an air conditioning system is to provide force-cooled air to firstly reduce and then maintain internal building temperatures to an acceptable predetermined comfort level. Air conditioning systems are normally switched on or off automatically in a series of cycles via a time clock or room thermostat, more often these days combined within a simple programmer. Typically both the compressor and fan within an air-conditioning system will run continuously until the room thermostat is satisfied. During this period the compressor consumes most of the energy, with the fan using a negligible amount by comparison. However, air-conditioning systems are routinely designed and specified to cope with the hottest days of the year - and then uprated somewhat to the next available size. This means that many air-conditioning systems are designed to operate under conditions they will rarely, if ever, encounter. Throughout the cooling cycle the compressor will provide cooling to the coils within the duct and the fan will extract warm air from the room. As it passes across the cooling coils it looses its h eat and the heat is subsequently expelled from the building. It is widely recognised that as cooling begins to take effect in the room, the temperature of the air entering the duct falls and the differential in temperature between the air entering and leaving the system narrows and a threshold known as thermodynamic saturation is achieved. This is the stall point at which the air leaving the system is no longer benefiting from the aggressive cooling and yet the compressor will still needlessly continue to run, flat out! Does this mean that there are significant periods of time during each duty cycle when the compressor is running without any beneficial effect on the room temperature? Yes, almost certainly!

Also, even when the motor is running and providing effective cooling into the building it may still be using more energy than it needs to because the load profile of the motor is such that it requires significantly more energy in the first few minutes following start-up than it will for the remainder of the cycle. However, the motor has no intelligent way of adjusting the amount of energy it draws during each phase of the cycle. All of this contributes to a motor and compressor that is oversized by design and uses more energy than is needs to under normal operating conditions. Single speed ac induction motor driven compressors are engineered so as to be able to firstly start the cooling cycle and build up the suction gas pressure and overcome any initial inertia (which can be a heavy initial load), and thereafter simply maintain the momentum during the remainder of the cycle. Significantly, compressor motors will use almost the same amount of energy for the whole of the cooling period, regardless of the fact that by measuring motor torque it is evident that the load demand varies dramatically during the duty cycle. Does this mean that for most of the time when the compressor is needed to run it is also drawing more energy than is really needed to complete the job of work? In almost all cases yes compressor s often run when they dont need to and when they do run they invariably use more energy than they really need!

The Solution
Based on thirty years experience with sophisticated temperature sensing modules and intelligent motor control, Enigin PLC have developed a range air conditioning energy savers (ACES) that specifically address both of these problems in a unique and holistic way. ACES can deliver significantly reduced energy costs and at the same time even improve levels of comfort. We have combined both the features of intelligent temperature sensing with microprocessor based self learning control algorithms that constantly monitor the temperature of the air passing across the cooling coils, alongside dynamic motor optimization and control. With ACES we can now identify the exact stall point at which thermodynamic saturation is reached and switch the compressor off while keeping the fan running so as to extract as much latent free cooling as possible from the coils, without compromising any cooling effect in the room. Furthermore, by providing dynamic control of the compressor motor while it is running we can ensure that the compressor uses only the minimum amount of energy it requires during each phase of the duty cycle Initially we softstart the motor, and then deliver full power to match the higher demand and thereafter gradually ease back on the energy being drawn. We give the motor the exact amount of power it needs at any instance of time. The ACES range of Air Conditioning Energy Savers will: Save up to 35% in energy costs Provide more effective comfort cooling Reduce heat, noise and vibration within the compressor Reduce maintenance costs Extend equipment life

The Next Generation

Enigin PLC are currently in the final stages of developing a range of products and solutions that combine into an Eco-system. This is a range of load side energy saving products that are connected to an Eniscope Hybrid Real Time Energy Management System, thereby providing remote web-enabled monitoring of individual items. This means we will be able to automatically identify energy leaks at a granular level. The new ACES Hybrid, due to be launched in 2013, will combine the benefits of an intelligent temperature sensing module and dynamic motor control into one unique product. This innovative solution is a worldfirst and is therefore subject to patent applications and both trademark and copyright design protection. In addition ACES Hybrid will also communicate to the World Wide Web via Eniscope in real time on important matters like; Compressor run time, equipment efficiency and specific itemised energy demands and running costs. Information will be archived in a cloud-based system - 24/7/365 - and any combination of salient reports can be accessed and provided at site level to provide optimum management and control of all the energy used in the building.