Cool strategies: The best way to deal with heat
30Sep
Variable speed drives generate heat – that's a fact of life – and usually, that heat is unwanted. What’s the best way to deal with it? Alan Baird, Country Manager UK & Ireland at Danfoss Drives looks at the options.
Heat, when it’s not required, is always a problem, and the best solution, in an ideal world, would always be to eliminate it at the source. Yet, that’s not always possible. Consider, for example, variable speed drives (VSDs). There is no VSD in existence that does not produce heat while operating and it’s very unlikely that one will be developed any time soon. That doesn’t mean, however, that all VSDs are equal in this respect.
The amount of heat produced by a VSD is inversely proportional to its efficiency – hence, the more efficient the VSD, the less heat it will generate. Since high efficiency also reduces running costs, the message is clear: always start by choosing the most efficient VSD available that will suit the application in hand.
Except in the smallest sizes, modern VSDs can be expected to be up to 98 percent efficient, so only two percent of the energy they use is converted to waste heat. That’s an impressive performance nevertheless, and with large drives, it can still amount to a lot of heat.
Read the full article in the October issue of PBSI
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