So, energy prices are increasing again, this time by nine percent and how is your business going to respond this time?  From an accountant’s perspective the answer is simple: you need to budget for the higher cost.  Alternatively you might consider reducing investment in plant and machinery, or sales and marketing.  There is another way and that is to save energy.

Many companies are following Government advice and have implemented energy reduction programmes.  There are huge savings in electricity available to commercial and industrial users if they know where to look, but most do not know where to start.  Consider installing inverter drives (motor speed controllers) in for HVAC motors as fans and pumps present ideal opportunities for energy saving.

Electric motors are estimated to consume 60% of the energy used by European business, and they are one of the easiest places to start.  The reason is simple and is based in physics not rhetoric. The energy used by motors is linked to their speed.  The power to speed relationship known as the cube law means that a small reduction in speed will result in a large reduction of energy.  As an example, reducing a motor speed by 10% and the power consumption falls by a staggering 27% (every year).

Payback time

Now consider a modern 22kW IE2 (91.6% efficient) motor running at full load for 10 hours a day 250 days a year.  This will use 22 x 10 x 250/91.6% = 60,000kW of electricity in a year.  Assume £0.10 per kW that’s a running cost of about £6,000.  From the previous paragraph, by running it at 90% of full speed you save 27.1% of your energy consumption or £1626 a year for as long as the motor runs.  By coincidence, £1626 is about the cost of a 22kW inverter from 999 Inverters, so you know the payback time too.

Borrow one and try

This is why almost everyone including the UK Government and the Carbon Trust is incentivising the use of variable speed drives.  If you don’t believe it ask us and we’ll loan you an inverter to try it for yourself.  If your accountants tell you no capital expenditure, then we’ll lease you one and it will pay for itself from the savings.

If you would like more information contact us at enquiries@999inverters.com