Reduce Energy Costs in your Air Filtration System
Rising energy costs force us to think of new ways to reduce our energy consumption in air filtration and air conditioning installations, in addition to the need to reduce CO2 emissions.
When renovating and designing new ventilation and air filtration systems, it is essential to apply energy-saving solutions without sacrificing performance.
Many factors affect energy consumption, the most commonly known are fan operation, cooling/heating of HVAC system and % of renewed air, particulate filter type and maintenance, and molecular filter choice including pellet shape and size which also have a significant impact on energy costs.
The importance of the blower operation
The cost associated with the blower will depend directly on the operating time, and the consumption, which in turn will depend on the power and efficiency of the blower, the airflow to be treated, and the pressure drop. Two parameters can be adjusted from this equation, the airflow to be treated and the pressure drop.
Air conditioning conditions are crucial
Air conditioning costs and filtered airflow can be optimized by adjusting the ratios of mixing outside and recirculated air. For this, it will be necessary to consider both indoor and outdoor air quality and pollutants, indoor and outdoor temperature difference, and the humidity of the external air to be filtered.
Air conditioning costs and filtered airflow can be optimized by adjusting the ratios of added outside air and recirculated inside air. For this, the quality, temperature and humidity of the outside air to be filtered and the interior air's quality must be considered.
How to reduce energy costs by achieving the right pressure drop
When renovating and designing ventilation and air filtration systems, it is critical to find solutions that allow us to reduce energy consumption and its associated cost.
One of the most important parameters to reduce energy costs is achieving the right pressure drop. Pressure drop can be reduced through the correct selection of equipment, filter media and particle filters.
Right filters and media can help reduce more than 10 % of consumption
The selection of filter media must be adequate for the elimination of polluting gases in the atmosphere, however, the selection of a media in the form of pellets instead of spheres will considerably reduce the pressure drop (between 10 and 20% for passage speed between 0,5 y 2,5 m/s), reducing the costs associated with the power of the blower.
The kWh used by the blower is directly proportional to the pressure drop, meaning that the kWh and their cost will be also reduced by more than 10%.
The design of the equipment must be according to the room conditions.
Equipment selection is another important parameter to consider. The design of the equipment and the type of media to be used must be specific for each case, depending on the parameters to be considered and the room conditions.
However, in general terms, it can be concluded that equipment with bulk media will generally have a higher pressure drop for a standard passage speed of 0.5 m/s, compared to equipment with modules with filter media in its structure. Bulk media equipment typically has a higher bed height. Instead, modules containing thin layers of media can be used inside side access unit-type equipment with a lower pressure drop at the standard velocity of between 1.27 to 2.54 m/s.
Save up to 30% of energy costs by optimizing equipment design and selecting the right filtration media.
The decrease in pressure drop by optimizing the equipment design and correctly selecting the filtration media can be up to 30 %. This means that lower power will be needed, decreasing the initial cost of the blower. Moreover, having this decrease in pressure drop translates into a decrease in the yearly operation cost due to a lower energy consumption of the blower of over 25 %.
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