New Fan System Software and Training Workshop: Resources to Optimize System Performance

December 7, 2004

From shop ventilation to material handling to boiler applications, motor-driven fans are essential and are widely used in industrial manufacturing.

That means fan use equates to 78.7 billion kilowatt-hours of energy each year, which represents 15% of motor electricity use.

But industrial plants could save 5% to 15% fan system energy use through equipment upgrades, 20% to 50% through speed control in variable flow, and 5% to 25% through optimal system design. Now, the DOE Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) introduces two new resources that can help industrial plants identify and take advantage of the many opportunities to save energy and costs, and improve the performance of their fan systems: the Fan System Assessment Tool and Fan System Assessment training workshop.

Fan System Assessment Tool

Fan System Assessment Tool (FSAT) is the latest in the suite of DOE-developed software tools. Use the powerful FSAT to help quantify the potential benefits of optimizing fan system configurations that serve industrial processes. FSAT is simple and quick, and requires only basic information about your fans and the motors that drive them. With FSAT you can:

Calculate the amount of energy used by your fan system
Determine system efficiency
Quantify the savings potential of an upgraded system.

Fan System Assessment Training

ITP now also offers Fan System Assessment Training, a 1-day workshop that highlights the benefits of fan system optimization and examines fan system performance characteristics. If you are a plant engineer or you are involved in the operation and maintenance of fan systems in your plant, consider attending this session to help you better manage the fan systems in your plant. The training helps you:

Determine the cost of operating fans in your facility
Understand the interaction between the fan curve and the system curve
Analyze the optimization potential of fan systems
Create an action plan to improve fan system efficiency and reliability in your plant.

In addition the training helps you make the most of the new FSAT software by providing an overview. Learn how the software works, what data is required for FSAT, and how to interpret assessment results.

Visit the BestPractices training calendar to find out about upcoming Fan System Assessment training in your area. Or, contact the EERE Information Center at 1-877-EERE-INF (1-877-337-3463), or http://www.eere.energy.gov/informationcenter.

Also watch for Fan System Qualified Specialist Training coming in the Spring of 2005. By successfully completing this advanced training, you will receive DOE recognition and can then apply the FSAT to help your plant or industrial customers identify ways to improve fan system efficiency. See the BestPractices Web site for a future announcement.