Tunnel MCC and Starter VFD's that are cheap!

[washworks installations]

We just came up with a great wat to reduce some of our electrical consumptions used in tunnel carwashes especially but could be used in many applications. Instead of using an magnetic contactor that "spikes" the meter all the time we are using VFD's and Soft Starts. This drastically reduces the "spikes" and lowered the bill by over 20% we figure? Give or take of course. Not a new concept at all but 2 things: We found out how to do them cheaper and also Mr. Obama has passed an energy credit that basically states that if you can reduce your consumptions by 10% the government will cover like 50% of the costs to do so as a write off! That makes the payback on this usually expensive concept that much more attractive. We did it ourselves and it was easier than we expected!

 

[MEP001]

Remember that converting contactors to VFD's will not save you any money on utilities if you're billed at a fixed rate per KWh instead of based on peak usage.

 

[GoBuckeyes]

What brand of softstarts are you using and where are you buying them? At what HP is a softstart or VFD beneficial for reducing peak demand surges? 5HP? 10HP and larger?

 

[washworks installations]

your right peak usage would be really the only place where this would be an advantage and you'd have to find out from your power company how they bill it out. Also some companies go off of an average so that can have an effect as well.

We are using a Seimens soft starter, as well a A Zoeller which I had never heard of. We are finding them at KJ Electric in Syracuse NY and you find thier info. on the web. As a matter of fact a guy named Magnum Services out of Flordia has used these guys before as well to build custom MCC cabinets for tunnels they had put in. They have been VERY helpful with our projects thus far, but make sure you have all your ducks in a row before you call them. They'll only do so much. It helps if you know an electrical engineer to help figure out your sizing. We found that anything over 7hp we saw a savings.