High-efficiency residential blower motor replacements: Capturing a lost opportunity

Book · Fri Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:55518

Gregerson, J

More than 70 million blower motors are used in North American residential furnaces, air conditioners, and heat pumps. These small motors are very inefficient and they typically operate during periods of peak demand. While it is not cost-effective to retrofit functioning blower motors, an estimated four percent of these units fail each year and are typically replaced with inefficient new motors. When a failed motor is being replaced anyway, utilities can cost-effectively influence the market to install more efficient replacements, which are available for systems that use belt-drive motors. The improved models typically offer energy savings of 25 to 30 percent, with simple paybacks of 6 months to five years. Ontario Hydro is the only utility that has yet attempted to capture this lost opportunity resource. In a short-lived but successful program, that utility worked with motor manufacturers and distributors to make high-efficiency blower motors available and to get them installed when failed motors were being replaced. In less than a year, 40 percent of Ontario`s belt-drive blower market shifted to high-efficiency units. Programs like Ontario Hydro`s could be cost-effective in many regions. Factors that influence cost effectiveness include hours and speed of operation, seasonal interactions, and fuel costs. In general, high-efficiency replacements are most economical for motors that run for many hours at high speed and least economical for motors that run at low speed or for few hours.

• OSTI ID: 55518
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
BLOWERS
ELECTRIC MOTORS
ELECTRIC UTILITIES
ENERGY CONSERVATION
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
INSTALLATION
LOAD MANAGEMENT
PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS