Ice-cream factory reduces energy costs using variable-speed pumps
Replacing over-sized fixed-speed pumps in an ice-cream factory with correctly sized variable-speed pumps has a achieved a payback of just one year.
Following an audit of the energy used by pumps in its ice-cream factory in Gloucestershire, Unilever dramatically reduced its energy consumption for pumping by installing Grundfos variable-speed pumps. The audit concluded that the existing 37 kW pumps were costing more than £16 000 a year to operate. Once the correct duty had been calculated, it was agreed that the replacement pumps need only be rated at 15 kW. If the new pumps were fixed speed, the savings would be £7000 a year. However the installation of variable-speed end-suction pumps rather than fixed-speed pumps increased the savings by a further 20% — giving a payback of only 12 months. Grant Burgess, engineering technician with Unilever, comments, ‘The Grundfos pump audit helped us identify the correct pump size required to meet our current process conditions. The use of variable-speed pumps will give us even more savings and leave us with the flexibility to speed up the pump to accommodate any future additions to the process load.’
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