Environmental Protection – First Steps to Environmental Sustainability Explained!

For this list of 5 energy saving green ideas, I should first mention a little something about “latent energy consumption”. This is something that can account for up to 73% of most average homes’ energy bills. The fact is that whenever you switch off most appliances, these things are still drawing power and using up electricity! What are some of these appliances, and how does this happen?

Here’s where we discover some very simple and easy ways to achieve a sizable amount of energy saving. Green-minded people as well, might not realize the full impact on cutting down on latent energy consumption, so do keep these things in mind; any and all appliances which use a remote control (televisions, stereo systems, even some home computers), a digital readout display (such as microwave ovens, for example), or indicator LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes, such as those on cell phone chargers, battery chargers, etc.), all continue to use electricity as long as they remain plugged into the wall. Think about that for a bit, and you can see where the following information can lead to a lot of energy saving, “green living” practices acquired or not.

Energy Saving Green Idea #1;

Start to use power strips – you know, they’re like electrical extension cords, with a panel supplying an array of plug outlets, also equipped with a power switch, and often with surge and spike protection. Set up “stations” around your home… for instance, have an “entertainment station” – this is where you would plug in your TV, VCR, DVD player, stereo, and so on, into one of these power strips – this way, you can simply flip the power switch on the power strip panel, and all of the appliances plugged into it will cease consuming electricity at once. Another “station” might be for food – microwave ovens, coffee makers, anything which has a digital display – you can shut off all at once, and turn it all on again later. Do this for chargers of various types as well.

Energy Saving Green Idea #2;

Get to know which of your appliances suck the most electricity, and use them less, or if possible, not at all. These can be things like your vacuum cleaner, your iron, etc. If you have these running and watch your kilowatt-hour meter while they are, it might just make your hair turn white… these consume cast amounts of electricity in very little time. Some of us out there actually use a vacuum on linoleum or hardwood flooring – why? A broom does just as well, and uses no electricity. These days, as far as ironing goes, many fabrics are wrinkle-free, and thankfully, we aren’t just confined to polyester like back in the seventies.

Energy Saving Green Idea #3;

Heat consumption is another thing – we can turn down our home’s thermostat to a cooler temperature while we sleep under warm covers and turn it back up in the mornings. Also, during times when no-one is home, such as during work and school hours, who are we heating the house up for? For more convenience, we can install timer mechanisms to our thermostats, so that the heat can be shut of within moments before leaving the house or going to sleep, and turned back on at about a half-hour before returning in the afternoon/evening, or waking up in the morning. This alone can save tons of your hard-earned money, representing a considerable amount of saved expenses.

Energy Saving Green Idea #4;

Use the previous idea applied to another part of your house – your hot water heater. This is something that is on constantly, but really needn’t be. You can switch it on and off at opportune times, such as those mentioned above, in order to save huge amounts of energy expense which would otherwise be wasted. This too can be fitted with a timing mechanism in order to set it to shut itself off and turn itself back on again at the most proper and convenient times. This is also a large consumer of energy expenses, and using this technique to cut down on wasteful energy consumption for both heating and hot water will save you quite a bit enough to surprise you, seriously.

Energy Saving Green Idea #5;

For this last little tip, let’s talk about lighting and its relationship with heating and air conditioning. If you keep all your window curtains open to let natural light in, you’ll obviously save on lighting expenses, as well as heating in the wintertime, but in the summer, few people realize, it may be best to do this to a lesser degree and use artificial lighting when needed. Why? Because the sunlight that pours into your windows will also heat up your house in the hot summer, causing you to turn on the air conditioner – this takes up more electricity than the lighting does. Keeping the curtains shut also has a cooling effect on the house, so artificial lighting actually helps cut down on air conditioning expenses. Use these 5 energy saving green ideas to cut down on energy expenditure in your home, and you may find that your bills will be surprisingly cut down by more than half the cost.

With the amount of human expansion in the world today, and population booms reaching levels higher than ever seen, we are consuming the earth’s natural resources in an alarming rate, and essentially killing our planet. There are many ways that each of us can help out, and the first steps to saving the planet begin at home. What better way to start than the use of environmentally friendly lights in your home and office. These lights, also known as CFL bulbs, can drastically reduce your carbon footprint, save you money, and help save the environment as well.

Top 3 Reasons to Use Energy Saving Lights in your home and help save the environment.

1. They reduce your monthly electric bill.

Lower wattage CFL bulbs use approximately 75% less energy and last about 10x longer than standard incandescent bulbs. If you replaced 20 incandescent light bulbs in your home with CFL bulbs, the cost savings would be about $1500 over the lifecycle of the bulbs.

2. They reduce your carbon footprint.

Going back to our above example, if you replaced 20 incandescent light bulbs in your home with energy saving lights, you could save 13,860 pounds of harmful carbon dioxide from entering our atmosphere throughout the bulb lifecycle. That’s the equivalent of taking a car off the road, and adding almost 1.5 acres of forest to the planet.

3. They simply last longer.

It is a simple fact that energy saving lights last longer than standard incandescent bulbs, about 10x longer to be exact. Energy Saving Bulbs usually have a rated lifespan of between 6,000 and 15,000 hours, whereas standard incandescent lamps are usually manufactured to have a lifespan of 750 hours or 1,000 hours. Wouldn’t that be nice to only have to replace your energy saving lights once every 8-10 years?

Every time a light bulb in my home goes out, I am in process of replacing it with a new energy saving light bulb, as I feel that it is my responsibility as a member of this planet to do my part in contributing to saving the environment. In the long run, it’s going to save me a bit of money as well. It is time for each and every one of us to do our part and keep the earth a clean place for us, our children, and our grandchildren. This is the quickest and easiest way to start, so let’s all start now and get to replacing those incandescent bulbs with energy saving light bulbs.

Energy saving lights are a definite step in the right direction for each and every one of us to go green and help save the environment.

Energy Saving – An introduction

Many systems use constant speed motors and control process flow rates or pressures by mechanically regulation using throttling valves, dampers, fluid couplings or variable inlet vanes etc. These devices generally do not control flow or pressure efficiently because energy is dissipated across the throttling device.

Running a motor at full speed while throttling the input or output is like driving a car with one foot on the accelerator and the other on the brake; a part of the produced output immediately goes to waste.

A variable speed drive can save over 60% of the energy. This is possible as it controls the energy at source, only using as much as is necessary to run the motor with the required speed and torque – much in the same way as the accelerator in the car controls the engine revs and without the foot on the brake. Types of loads – which are suitable for energy saving?

Drive applications are categorized with respect to power and torque changes in response to the motors speed. It is important to understand the type of load for a particular application because not all are equally good energy saving opportunities for the application of a variable speed drive. In fact, if a variable speed drive is used on some loads there will be little or no energy savings.

Variable speed drives and the loads they are applied to can generally be divided into 3 groups:

- Constant power

- Constant torque

- Variable torque

Constant Power Loads

In constant power applications, the power requirement remains constant at all speeds, and the torque requirement varies inversely with speed. One example of this type of load would be a lathe. At low speeds, the machinist takes heavy cuts, using high levels of torque. At high speeds, the operator makes finishing passes that require much less torque. Other examples are drilling and milling machines.

Typically, these applications offer no energy savings at reduced speeds.

Constant Torque Loads

In constant torque loads, the power is directly proportional to the operating speed. Since torque is not a function of speed, it remains constant while the power and speed vary proportionately. Typical examples of constant torque applications include conveyors, extruders, mixers and positive displacement pumps. Usually these applications result in moderate energy savings at lower speeds.

In variable torque load applications, both torque and power change with speed. Torque varies with speed squared, and power varies with speed cubed. This means that at half speed, the power required is approximately one eighth of rated maximum. Common examples of variable torque loads are centrifugal fans, blowers and variable discharge pressure pumps.

The use of a variable speed drive with a variable torque load often returns significant energy savings. In these applications the drive can be used to maintain various process flows or pressures while minimizing power consumption. In addition, a drive also offers the benefits of increased process control, which often improves product quality and reduces scrap.

Effective speed ranges are from 50% to 100% of maximum speed and can result in substantial energy savings.

How do variable speed drives achieve energy saving with variable torque loads?

Variable speed drives regulate the speed of motors and in turn the speed of the fan or pump by controlling the energy that goes into the motor rather than restricting the flow of a process running constantly at full speed.

A variable speed drive can save over 60% of the energy as it controls the energy at source, only using as much as is necessary to run the motor with the minimum speed and torque.

Large amounts of energy can be saved on fan and pump systems, because of the affinity laws for pressure and flow rates.

The Affinity laws state -Flow is directly proportional to speed Torque is directly proportional to speed squared Power required is proportional to speed cubed Therefore, this means that if 100% flow requires full power 75% flow requires 0.753= 42% of full power 50% flow requires 0.53= 12.5% of the power

Mechanical control methods such as inlet guide vanes, throttling valves, discharge dampers do not take advantage of the affinity laws.

With mechanical flow control methods the motor always runs at full speed and the flow is mechanically restricted.

A variable speed drive saves energy by reducing the actual speed of the motor when full flow is not required.

Example A fan is running at fixed speed (50Hz) and the output from the fan is restricted by a discharge damper to restrict airflow to the correct level for the process. The input power is typically 95% of full load power.

A variable speed drive is fitted to the system and the discharge damper removed so there is no restriction to airflow. The speed of the motor is reduced to 40Hz which gives the same airflow as before when the motor was run at full speed and a discharge damper used. Now the input power is typically 50% of full load power.

Therefore by using a variable speed drive, the power being consumed is reduced by typically 45%.

Centrifugal Fans Massive potential energy savings using a variable speed drive compared to the two most common methods of flow control for fans: – Inlet guide vanes require about 60% power to give a flow rate of 50% – A discharge damper requires a huge 90% power to give 50% flow

Centrifugal Pumps – Operating at 75% flow requires less than 50% power, whilst the throttling valve requires around 90% power.

Centrifugal fan – Typical input powers

The following table shows the typical input power to a motor when run at full speed with flow rate is restricted by an outlet damper compared to the typical input power when the same motor is run at reduced speed from a variable speed drive, achieving the same air flow rate as with the outlet damper. It can be seen that if an outlet damper reducing the air flow rate to 80% uses 95% input power, a variable speed drive achieving the same air flow rate uses 50% input power.

Other advantages of variable speed drives

o A variable speed drive can also make it possible to stop a motor completely when it is not required as re-starting with a variable speed drive causes far less stress than starting direct on line – soft start is an inherent feature of the drive.

o Regulating the motor speed has the added benefit of easily accommodating capacity rises without extra investment, as speed increases of 5-20% is no problem with an AC variable speed drive as long as there is enough spare capacity in the system.

o Reduced maintenance compared to DC systems (brushes and commutators)

o Reduced motor/application noise levels.

o If the variable speed drive has an internal PID loop, it will be possible to automatically control flow or pressure based on feedback from a sensor within the system. This can make further energy savings as the motor can slow right down if very little flow or pressure is required.

Another method of saving energy

Most companies forget about the motors when considering energy saving. As well as saving money by installing a variable speed drive, installing high efficiency motors can also save energy and money. Please see the enclosed document for further details on high efficiency motors. Motor Control Warehouse can supply EFF1 accredited motors. Please take a look at our website for further details.

Example of energy saving using a variable speed drive

A 30kW pump operating for 16 hours during weekdays and 12 hours during week ends, total of hours per week = 92 hours.

Energy Cost at constant speed Energy consumption per week – 30kW x 92hours = 2760kWh Assume electricity rate is 10p per kWh Energy cost per year – 2760kWh x £0.10 x 52 weeks = £14352

Energy Cost at variable speed Assume average speed is 75% which corresponds to 42% power consumption Energy consumption per week – 0.42 x 30kW x 92 hours = 1159.2kWh Energy cost per year – 1159.2kWh x £0.10 x 52 = £6027.84 Value of energy saved per annum by using a variable speed drive £14352 – £6027.84 = £8324.16

NOTE: This calculation is just an example using a figure of 10p/kWh but gives a good guide as to what can be saved by using variable speed drives. For a more accurate value of possible energy savings, a full survey including tests would be required