See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development

DC motor replacement  – synchronous motors are increasingly the motor of choice in high power, heavy load applications.

“Synchronous motors provide high efficiency in applications … resulting in low operating and maintenance costs. … include crushers, mills and conveyor belts in mining and quarry operations; fans, pumps and compressors in steel plants; pulp and paper extruders; chippers and de-barkers in wood processing; sewage system pumps; large compressors and fans in chemical and petrochemical applications; mills and crushers in cement works; and water injection pumps on floating oil platforms.”

DC motor replacement

As they have a higher efficiency level, reduced size and higher output rating capacity, synchronous motors can replace DC motors in high performance applications.

Synchronous motors have better efficiency and speed accuracy than induction motors. However, when comparing the two, the design of synchronous motors is more complex. As a result, induction motors are less expensive for a given power level, at power outputs up to 10kW. However, above this figure the higher efficiency of synchronous motors delivers lower operating costs.

See on www.connectingindustry.com

See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development

This performance metric takes center stage as a growing number of users turn to it both to boost the efficiency of their equipment and to compare the performance of machines and production lines.

“OEE is a measure of the utilization of an asset’s productive capacity in terms of three factors—availability, performance (throughput), and quality—expressed as percentages of their ideal values. For example, performance is the actual production rate or throughput expressed as a percentage of the designed capacity of the equipment.”

“…OEE can sometimes be useful for comparing identical and nearly identical equipment, … the metric is not always suitable for this purpose. … OEE is the product of only three factors: performance, quality and uptime. “It doesn’t factor in things like sales and the importance to the business,” he says. “Those are things that OEE just doesn’t have any kind of theoretical basis to address.”

“For this reason, comparing equipment often makes more sense with other metrics, such as the total effective equipment performance (TEEP), the product of OEE and a loading factor computed by dividing planned uptime by calendar time….”

“Users often neglect this loading factor when comparing lines. … The client never planned to run the lines for the same amount of time each day,” he says. So, he maintains that it was unfair to compare their OEEs.”

“Another limitation of OEE, as well as TEEP, is that the metric does not consider sales and the relative contribution that a machine or line makes to the overall business. “You have to factor in the return on investment,” says Kemmann. “If similar lines with different OEEs are serving different customers where your pricing structure is different, then comparing OEEs will not be helpful because you’re not factoring in the effects of their relative value to the business.””

See on www.automationworld.com

See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development

IBM deploys its Tririga building sustainability suite for the U.K. Ministry of Defense.

“IBM bought Tririga in 2011, and has since built on the San Francisco-based startup’s core real estate portfolio management capabilities. For example, IBM has used its in-house sensor and interval meter data sampling and monitoring technology to create a new application, called Tririga Energy Optimization, that uses data analysis to seek out previously unknown opportunities for efficiency, as well as ranking them against one another in terms of ROI, Bartlett said.”

“…This year it landed a contract with the U.S. Air Force to apply the Tririga platform to its 626 million square feet of real estate across 170 sites around the world, and it is also leading a consortium involved in a 50-building energy efficiency project with the U.S. General Services Administration, the federal government’s landlord.”

“…The Pew Charitable Trusts has projected that U.S. military green spending could reach $10 billion by 2030, including biofuels, batteries, renewable energy and other technologies.”

See on www.greentechmedia.com

See on Scoop.it – Twitter & Social Media

In an unusual step, a U.S. congressman is proposing a two-year ban on all new federal legislation regulating the Internet.

“Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican from California who has been an advocate for Internet freedoms, has posted online a draft of his legislation, the Internet American Moratorium Act of 2012. The bill would “create a two-year moratorium on any new laws, rules or regulations governing the Internet.””

…

“The answer is NOT to ban new regulation. We need regulation,” another said. …”

“”Open internet? That’s a good thing. But a law that keeps congress from governing? That’s not a good thing — the internet is a big place…”

“When asked why the congressman introduced the bill, a spokesman for Issa told CNN, “After SOPA and PIPA (the Senate’s similar Protect Intellectual Property Act), it became very clear that we needed a cooling-off period to figure out a better way to create policy that impacts Internet users, job creators and all Americans.””

See on edition.cnn.com

See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development

All that sunshine doesn’t stop San Diego from investing heavily in reducing outages.

“Advanced metering infrastructure lets us know fourteen minutes before the first customer call,” he said, “and there’s even more savings on top of that if it’s a breaker.” He noted that sometimes the utility has a crew on site before the first customer even calls.

The smart meters can also be used to manage and monitor power flow with a level of granularity that was not possible before. That visibility allows for better planned outages, said Romero.

See on www.greentechmedia.com

See on Scoop.it – Green Building Design – Architecture & Engineering

The incorporation of interior greenery has grown to the point where it now even takes up indoor wall spaces.

“A new trend sees ‘bio-walls’ offering bring new life into conventional spaces. According to former University of Guelph researcher Dr. Alan Darlington, the incorporation of these green walls are drastically increasingly Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) passively, without energy reliance.”

“We’re getting rid of 60 to 70 per cent of the pollutants in the air after a single pass through the filtration system,” he said. “It means less fresh outdoor air has to be brought in to maintain air quality and that significantly reduces the energy required to heat or cool that air. It’s a really beautiful technology.”

See on designbuildsource.ca

See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development

Millions of the world’s poorest lack power. Microgrids could be a clean-energy solution.

See on www.technologyreview.com

See on Scoop.it – Green Building Design – Architecture & Engineering

Engineers and building owners often focus on payback periods and return on investment as economic decision-making thresholds for energy efficiency investments.

Back in the day, HVAC systems were designed to be stout, longevity was the main focus, and concepts such as operating costs and efficiencies were virtually non-existent. The driving force was purely “How much will it cost and will it last?” Interest rates and return on investments were left to the bankers and stockbrokers.

“A more sophisticated approach is present worth analysis, which establishes a present time value of all future cash flow by discounting the costs. A typical time frame used for this procedure is 20 years. …”

“Data considered as input includes the future costs of energy, future maintenance costs, replacement costs, life of the product, and future interest rates. There are some pitfalls: prediction of future energy cost is a guessing game, just like predicting stock prices. Two factors, weather and people, are not 100% predictable. Planned maintenance cost can be somewhat consistent, but one catastrophic failure will ruin the budget. In the end, the analysis produces a lifecycle value in today’s dollars. This is then compared to similar investment analyses to select the most reasonable investment. The process can be intense and the projected outcome is always subject to scrutiny.”

See on www.csemag.com

See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development

Coca-Cola Japan says its peak-shift vending machines, jointly developed with Fuji Electric, can provide cooled products for 16 hours while reducing daytime…

See on www.energymanagertoday.com

See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development

Arizona households and businesses can cut electricity use by 21 percent and save $7.3 billion by 2020 if utilities ramp up energy-efficiency incentives, a public policy group said Tuesday.

“The report found that every dollar invested in energy efficiency returns more than $2 in savings on business and household utility bills.”

“The 270-page report calls for $5.5 billion in investments in efficiency programs by Arizona utilities, money that Geller said the companies would have to spend anyway on things like new power plants to keep up with demand.”

“Geller’s study said the energy saved would allow Arizona to avoid building or close 10 large power plants…”

See on azcapitoltimes.com