Have you ever wondered how much energy you can save by unplugging the chargers from around your house? A typical phone charger uses 0.4kWh of electrical energy every day. We don’t see too many people unplugging their TV at night so there are opportunities to save energy in the average suburban home.
Energy costs across the world vary but generally, industrial plants have sought to save on energy any way they can as costs rise. With local energy producers offering rebates and discounted rates for off-peak usage, the savvy industrial plant owner should look for savings opportunities from his major plant equipment.
A typical industrial baghouse dust collector uses 1,800 kWh every day with a potential saving of 60% on the peak rate if operated at night. Performing nighttime maintenance cuts into production uptime at off-peak rates. Also, as filter bag loading increases, it increases differential pressure and loading on the primary air mover, using more energy. So, it makes sense to accurately control the bag cleaning cycle. For pulse-jet cleaned dust collectors, the hidden energy hog is compressed air. Leaking vales and broken bags interrupt the cleaning regime, causing the compressed air system to work harder at higher energy cost, not to mention the wear on the entire high-pressure air system.
To get your power back, consider a way to reduce maintenance downtime and release night shift to production. Also, consider a pulse cleaning diagnostic system to identify leakages or faulty vales as soon as possible. And act quickly, the best monitoring of a dust collectors is real-time monitoring. That way savings are flowing back to you before the kids can say X-Box!
