Blower Test Standards

Blowers are widely used by industrial customers for various industrial processes. According to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s 2006 study, blower (and fan) consumes approximately 1,300 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year in SCE’s service area alone. This is fourth largest electric energy consumption components among industrial customers, and yet ―unlike pump, lighting, or compressed air system― we still do not have an industry recognized efficiency testing standard or technical resources for promoting best practices. DES, therefore, has worked with other utilities through Consortium of Energy Efficiency to encourage an energy efficient performance testing standard for blowers . When the blower energy efficiency testing standard becomes available, design engineers, customers, and utilities with energy efficiency programs will be able to require the energy efficiency specification into their designs and operations.

There are industry recognized testing standards for pumps, lighting, and compressed air systems that enable us to identify and differentiate energy efficient products from others. However, Southern California Edison (SCE) identified that there was no industry recognized test standard for electric blowers. This Technology Development Support (TDS) project, as a part of the SCE Emerging Technology (ET) program, focuses on developing a performance test standard for commercial and industrial electric blowers recognizing a significant energy saving opportunity in California. According to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s 2006 study (PG&E 2006 Study), blowers and fans consume approximately 1,300 gigawatt-hours (GWh) per year in SCE’s service area alone.1 Blowers and fans are the fourth largest electric energy consumption components among industrial customers, and yet design engineers, customers, and utilities with energy efficiency programs are not able to identify energy efficient blowers in the marketplace. SCE, therefore, has been working with other utilities through the Consortium of Energy Efficiency (CEE) to encourage the Compressed Air and Gas Institute (CAGI) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) to develop blower test standards. After working with various professional organizations for over three years, there is now a blower test standard, which is Annex G to the existing ISO 5389 by CAGI. ASME expects to have the Performance Test Code 13 standard completed in 2013. These test standards provide a level playing field among blower manufacturers for testing and comparing their blower performance to others without facing ambiguities of testing variables, conditions, or even qualification of certified laboratories, as the new standards clearly define them. When blower manufactures test their blowers according to these test standards, design engineers, customers, and utilities with energy efficiency programs are able to identify high performance blowers easily - above the industry average. This brings an opportunity to develop additional energy efficiency programs that promote higher efficiency blowers for commercial and industrial applications. This is similar to incentivizing a customer who had a choice of purchasing a standard motor vs. a highly efficient motor in the past.