Case Study at an Animal Feed Mill

Animal feed mills generally manufacture food pellets, chicken feed, pet feed etc. for this type of manufacturer we are concerned with 4 of the mill’s processes, in this case study we are focusing on only one of these, the cooler fans.

Case Study at an Animal Feed Mill – Data Logging

We fitted a data logger to Cooler Fan 1 for 2 weeks. The Cooler Fan 1 data shows actual data, whilst the other applications are conservative estimates.

Descrip tion	Rating kW	Present Operation	Present Motor Power Cons kW	Pro posed Control Method	Saving Assump tions	Annual Hours Run	Present Annual Elec Cost £
Cooler Fan 1	45	Suction damper controlled by cooled product temper ature	32.7	PID	10% speed reduc tion	6132	14,036

Cooler Fan 1 runs on a 45kW motor controlled by a damper. Current annual electric costs to run this motor is £14,036 The cost to supply, install and commission an IP54 inverter £5,648.

Cooler Fan 1 Motor

 

Controlled with Damper

 

IDS Fits ACS800 Inverter (IP55)

Inverter Results

You can see from this graph the dramatic change in kW used. The motors normal consumption under damper control is in the blue & the results controlled by the inverter in red.

Results

		Cost per annum based on 7p/kWh
Original average power when running	32.7kW	£14,036.00
Inverter average power when running	18.0kW	£7,726.00
Saving	14.7kW	£6,310.00

Based on 6,132 hours running at 7p/kWh the inverter installation will pay for itself in 8.9 months.

Conclusion

A successful Cooler Fan 1 trial saving £6,310 per annum (if energy prices remain the same, of course if they continue to rise then the energy saving can be recalculated). This trial was conducted on only one of the mill’s cooler fans, they have four at these premises, so you can see the potential for continued year on year savings are vast.

Other Ways to Save Energy, Time and Costs…

There are additional energy saving potentials with the air compressor & dust extract units at this animal feed mill.

Grinders – motor driven and can take an average of 20 mins to shut down. Applying an inverter to this process can drastically reduce this ‘dead production time’ to around 2 mins. An enormous time/cost saving solution

Dust extract units – Extracts excess dust from the animal feed, fitting an inverter to this application will save even more energy and associated costs.

Air Compressors – Another potential energy saving opportunity.

As you can see, the potential energy saving & cost saving possibilities within animal feed mills are considerable, which is why we are keen to provide a free energy survey for more of these sites. If you are interested in reducing your business’ energy consumption and associated costs then please call 0115  9441036 or email [email protected]