Energy saving opportunities through Variable Frequency Drive for Commercial Air Conditioners

Variable Frequency Drives (VFD's) are used in many applications ranging from small appliances to the largest of coal plant drives wherein it's possible to achieve significant amount of energy savings through proper selection and sizing of the VFDs along with suitable motors. Though we have various other conventional energy savings schemes available, VFD has significant amount of energy saving potential ranging from 20% to 65 % opportunities depending on the application and its range of operation. As on today, air conditioners are quite commonly used and therefore electric motors are essential to be part of air conditioners. Electric motors driving pumps, fans, compressors and other machines are responsible for 45% of global electricity use in worldwide wherein huge energy savings opportunities are available [4]. But at the same time, energy savings opportunities are not explored by user due to lack of awareness on the energy savings opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to show how to save energy through VFD controlled motor driven systems for compressor used in air conditioner applications. In this paper, the possible energy savings opportunities between Fixed Speed Motor Compressors Vs. VFD controlled Motor compressors is presented.