Users of air handling units (AHUs) can achieve maximum efficiency from their equipment following an agreement between ABB Drives Alliance member Inverter Drive Systems (IDS) and air filtration specialist Camfil.
The partnership with IDS means that customers retrofitting Camfil air filters will be able to have an ABB variable-speed drive fitted at the same time.
A filter installed in a HVAC system offers resistance to the air flowing through it, causing the air pressure to drop downstream of the filter. The higher this resistance to the air flow, the higher the pressure drop. This means the fan will need to work harder, using more energy, in order to supply the proper air volume.
The energy consumption is directly proportional to the average pressure drop over the filter. A typical installation running half the time over 1 year, for every additional Pascal in pressure drop over the filter adds £1 in extra energy cost. A single bad filter construction could add 50 Pascals thereby adding £50 in additional energy costs per filter per year. Energy accounts for 70% of the total life cycle cost of the filter system.
Camfil’s filters are designed to solve this problem by distributing the incoming air over the entire surface of the filter, giving minimum resistance to the air flow and thus minimising pressure drop.
The high energy efficiency possible with the Camfil filters is increased still further by an ABB variable-speed drive. The greater air flow available can be controlled via a pressure or flow transducer, allowing supply to exactly meet demand, giving further energy savings.
The agreement offers AHU users the filter expertise of Camfil and the variable-speed drive experience of IDS/ABB to achieve the most efficient solution for their air handling application.