Drives help save 23% on HVAC energy costs

One of the UK's largest producers of pastry based products has saved 23% on its heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) energy costs following installation of ABB variable-speed drives at its plant in Cornwall.

Tamar Foods produces five million pastry-based products a week. As part of its push to improve the energy efficiency of its processes, the company was keen to see how variable speed drives could help. Inverter Drive Systems (IDS), an ABB Drives Alliance member, looked at the potential for savings on the plant's HVAC system. This involved retrofitting the HVAC system with 11 ABB standard drives for HVAC with ratings ranging from 15 to 45kW.

"Because we use sub-metering, we are able to distinguish the energy costs of the HVAC and refrigeration systems," says Thomas Parrott, health, safety and environmental manager for Tamar Foods. "Before the installation of the drives, we were using 2600kWh a day for the HVAC system. After the installation, this fell to 2000kWh a day, a saving of around 23%."