Soft Motor Starts on Pumps [RE-wrenches]
Jeff Clearwater
clrwater at earthlink.net
Sat Mar 4 23:24:44 PST 2006
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Hello All,
I know that large industrial motors benefit greatly from soft-start
motor controls. What I don't know is how small soft start controls
can go and still be economically practical - or what is available for
single phase.
I have a couple of customers - on grid - with large submersible well
pumps - one is 60 HP (3 phase hi-leg delta 240 VAC). They are paying
alot on peak charges. Anyone know of a good supplier of motor
controls for that pump? Are the economics worth it at this size? I
also know that some smart motor controls not only eliminate peak
charges but also do power tracking and find the efficiency sweet
spots. Is this significant on a submersible well pump motor?
I also have a few off-grid customers with 5 HP deep well pumps
pushing water up 500' (plus another 100+ for the pressure tank). I'm
working on them to go DC positive displacement to a non-pressurized
tank and small booster pump (PD again), but in the meantime, is there
anything I can do with soft motor controls so we don't hammer the
inverter (or in one case not need to buy such big inverters until we
can get their water system to be an off-grid one)? I measured 67
Amps In Rush on this 5 HP pump (240VAC) with a run amperage of 22..
Do smart motor controls - especially the ones regulating phase angle
- inherently problematic on off-grid inverters? Might there be
compatibility issues?
Appreciate any help you can offer on this. Especially suppliers with
good tech support!
Thanks!
Jeff C.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Clearwater
Village Power Design Associates
Sustainable Energy & Water Solutions for Home & Village
http://www.villagepower.com
gosolar at villagepower.com
NABCEP (tm) Certified Solar PV Installer
530-470-9166
877-SOLARVillage
877-765-2784
72 Baker Rd.
Shutesbury, MA 01072
425 Nimrod St.
Nevada City, CA 95959
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