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The E.S.C.A.P.E. SystemTM |
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(When
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Technical
explanation on how the Energy EconomizerTM
technology saves you money! Here is the technical explanation on how the Energy
Economizer’s KVAR technology saves you money on your utility bill.
All induction loads require two types of power, one is KVAR- referred to
as “reactive power” (KVAR stands for: kilovolt-ampere-reactance), and the
other is KW- referred to as “working power.”
The combination of KVAR and KW make up KVA, referred to as “apparent
power.” KVA is what the utility
company charges you for. Induction
loads require KVAR to establish the EMF (electromagnetic field) around the
induction windings. The EMF
provides the torque necessary to turn the motor shaft.
Without KVAR (reactive power) the motor would not run.
Only after you have established the EMF around the motor induction
windings will the motor shaft then turn. The
power that is used to turn the shaft on a motor which turns pump impellers or
fan blades etc. is called the working power or KW.
By implementing the KVAR technology or custom sized capacitors to
individual induction loads you are providing the necessary KVAR for that load
and therefore the power you buy from your utility company is mostly KW, working
power. I have worked in power plant
control rooms where we have to increase KVAR’S because there is customer
demand. And as a result we increase
the KVARs to deliver to the customer and the customer pays for KVARs as well as
KW. You can
see the proof of this in several ways. You can compare last years bill in one
month without the Energy Economizer to this year’s bill in the same
month with the Energy Economizer installed.
This is simple evidence that you are paying for both KVAR and KW and by
implementing the Energy Economizer technology you will virtually be paying only
for KW therefore reducing your energy consumption from the utility plant and in
turn your utility bill. Induction
loads require KVARs to run and requires KW to turn the motor shaft, the
difference is that the Energy Economizer technology provides the KVARs locally
to the motor so that most of the power pulled from the utility company is KW,
working power. Power
Factor- explained: Let me
take a moment to explain power factor. Power
factor is a measurement of how efficiently power is used by a load.
Power factor is equal to the ratio between KW (working power) and KVAR
(reactive power). It is represented
like this: PF= KW /
KVAR (power factor is equal to KW divided by KVAR) Some
large customers are charged power factor penalties by the power utility
companies if their power factor drops below a certain number.
If the power utility company did not measure or charge you for delivering
KVAR then how can they penalize these large companies for it?
The answer is the power utility company does deliver KVAR to their
customers and they charge all their customers for this service.
Only some large companies get charged an additional charge called power
factor penalties if their power factor drops below a certain point.
All customers pay for KVARs.
So what
is power factor? Let’s say that
we measure the power factor on a load and it measures 70% (or “70” on a load
meter). Based on the formula above,
that means that 70% of the power that the motor is pulling is being used to do
work like turn a pump or fan, represented by KW (working power) and the other
30% of the power that is being pulled from the utility power company is being
used to establish the EMF around the motor windings called KVAR (reactive
power). The reason we say that this
motor is 70% efficient is because only 70% is being used to produce an output
like turning a fan or pump. The
other 30%, which is being used to establish the EMF around the motor windings,
is not producing any output or work for you, but you are paying for it.
KVARs are a necessity for all induction loads but they do
not produce any work and therefore power factor measures how much of the power
you use from the utility company is used to produce work- or an output, and how
much is used to establish the EMF around the induction windings.
The KVARs needed for an induction motor is the same
whether the motor is loaded or not so when a motor is not loaded the power
factor is low and as the motor load increases the power factor improves.
Let’s look at this a little closer.
Power factor is the ratio of KW divided by KVAR.
Let’s remember that the required KVARs for a motor are the same whether
it is unloaded or loaded. So when a
motor is unloaded it is basically running or freewheeling but not turning a fan
or pump and therefore it is not pulling a lot of KW (working power) because it
is not doing much work. In this
example the power factor will be low because KVARs will be higher than KW and
the ratio between the two make up power factor.
Now let’s take the same example except this time the motor is loaded.
When the motor is turning a load it will have to pull more power to turn
that load so it is now pulling more KW’s (working power).
As KW goes up and KVAR does not change- the power factor goes up as well.
That is the reason a loaded motor has a better power factor than an
unloaded motor but that does not change the fact that the motor still has the
same requirements for KVARs to establish the EMF in order to turn the motor
shaft and produce an output. When
power factor goes up, amps and KVAR goes down.
This is partially true with respect to perspective.
We are going to look at two examples, one where you have not installed
the Energy Economizer technology and the other where you have installed the
Energy Economizer technology. First
we will look at an example where you have not installed the Energy
Economizer technology. As in the
example above the KVARs required to run the induction load does not change so
you would have to load the motor and increase KW to improve power factor.
So in this case KW went up in order for the power factor to go up.
Now let’s assume that the Energy Economizer technology is installed. Run the motor and measure the power factor downstream of the
KVAR unit and upstream of the Energy Economizer unit. You will find that the power factor upstream of the Energy
Economizer unit is close to unity or 100% power factor and the power factor
downstream of the KVAR unit is the same as it is if the Energy Economizer unit
was not installed. The reason
being- when you measure power factor upstream of the Energy Economizer unit, and
it is measuring close to 100% without having to increase KW, it means that you
are pulling only KW from the utility and not KVAR and therefore power factor is
equal to KW. The KVAR (reactive
power) required to run that motor is delivered to the motor by the Energy
Economizer unit and not the utility company. Contact:
Richard
Fix 1-888-218-1146 1-817-487-3696 |