Fuente : mepca Ingeniería
Vacon Reino Unido – El uso de variadores de velocidad (VSD) es una gran manera de ahorrar energía, pero, si sus VSD son más de cinco años de edad, es el momento de echar otro vistazo a ellos, dice Stephen Takhar, Director General de ac variable de expertos variador de velocidad, Vacon Reino Unido.
Durante la última década, la prensa técnica ha sido inundado con historias sobre el ahorro de energía que se pueden hacer por los VSD montaje. Las historias son verdaderas, por lo que muchas empresas ya han instalado los VSD. Cuando los ingenieros de estas compañías ven el ahorro de la energía VSD historias, probablemente piensan que han estado allí y han hecho, pero ¿están justificados en sentarse y disfrutar de la luz de un trabajo bien hecho? Eso depende de la edad de sus VSD. Si son sólo un par de años, es poco probable que sean necesarias nuevas medidas. Pero si los VSD son más de cinco años de edad, es una historia diferente.
That’s because the intrinsic efficiency of VSDs has improved considerably in recent years. It’s not, sin embargo, as simple as saying that VSD efficiency has improved by one or two per cent over the full operating range, because the efficiency improvements relate mostly to operation at reduced loads and speeds.
The efficiency of older drives running at less than 50% load can be surprisingly low – many small drives over five years old struggle to reach 60% efficiency at 40% cargar. The larger drives of the era fare somewhat better, but even with them, 80% efficiency at 40% load would have been considered satisfactory. In contrast, the latest ac VSDs deliver at least 90% efficiency down to 20% of full load.
But does this extra efficiency matter? After all, the gains are biggest when the drives are lightly loaded, and how often does that happen? In many applications, the answer is that the drives run lightly loaded most of the time.
Designers size motors for worst-case conditions – with an air-conditioning installation, por ejemplo, this would be the hottest day of the year. Then they further increase the motor size “to be on the safe side”. This means most fan and pump motors rarely need to deliver full output. Instead, they spend their lives running lightly loaded, which is the least efficient area of operation for older VSDs. This is a very good reason to review the efficiency of older VSDs and, if necessary, replace them with modern products.
And it’s not only efficiency that will be improved by installing new drives. The latest units are much more reliable and, in today’s de-skilled world, this is a very real advantage. Además, modern VSDs have superior harmonic and EMC performance, making it easier for users to satisfy the demands of the supply authorities.
There’s no doubt that, in appropriate applications, VSDs deliver big energy savings but older VSDs aren’t a “fit-and-forget” solution. They probably did a great job in their day, but it’s likely that they are now markedly inferior to the latest products. En breve, if your VSDs have passed their fifth birthday, it’s time to talk to an expert like Vacon about reviewing their performance. You may be pleasantly surprised at the savings you could make!
Fuente : mepca Ingeniería