electronically commutated motor

Designing the 5.0e

5.0e, Front
5.0e, Front

Our newest model of whole house fan, the 5.0e, is has been available on our website since spring. We’re extremely excited about it. Not only is this our first new fan in several years, but it is also our most powerful and our most efficient fan ever. Moreover, we’re manufacturing a greater portion of this fan “in-house” at our Medford, Oregon facility than any of our other fans. We’re also seeking a patent for some of the innovations behind its performance. As our patent is finally “pending”, we can now share the story of the 5.0e’s development.

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Changing Fan Speed Settings on Your AirScape 2.5e

2.5e Control Board v3.0Not only does the AirScape 2.5e have phenomenally low energy use, the user can also select up to 5 different CFM settings. The 2.5e fan motor has inputs which we program at different CFM. From the factory it is set for a low speed of 1512 CFM at 42 watts and a high speed of 2536 CFM at 196 watts. Now let’s say that the factory low speed setting does not provide enough airflow to properly cool your home over night. The fan speed settings can easily be adjusted for more airflow. For example, you could change the low speed from 1512 CFM to 2080 CFM. At the same time you could also adjust the high speed setting so that the fan will move 2604 CFM on high (see example #2). This is as simple as moving the low and high speed wires on the 2.5e fan control board (located on the fan housing) to different connections. The fan speed adjustment is described below:

  1. Turn your 2.5 e off. Unplug the fan power cord and turn off power to the damper box by unplugging it or switching the circuit breaker off if hardwired.
  2. Remove the fan junction box cover (located on the fan housing).
  3. Move the low and high speed wires to different taps to adjust fan speed (see photos).
  4. Plug in the fan power cord and turn the damper box power back on.
  5. The unit is now ready to operate at the new CFM settings.

ECM_Module_v3.0_cut_1factoryECM_Module_v3.0_cut_1ex1ECM_Module_v3.0_cut_1ex2ECM_Module_v3.0_cut_1ex3

TAP CFM WATTS
TP1 1512 43
TP2 2080 108
TP3 2536 197
TP4 2604 216
TP5 2778 258

Part Load World

Energy Use vs. Percent Part Load
Energy Use vs. Percent Part Load

Most everything we build is designed for the worst case scenario, be it power output, strength, whatever.  The only problem with this is that 90% of the time we are running a lower speed. Let me give you some examples.

Your car engine has enough power to accelerate a fully loaded vehicle uphill, in the summer heat, with a headwind, and a tailgater behind you. Great, but most of the time your car is taking one person down the freeway at a reasonable speed.  Unfortunately, it’s very hard to design that motor to perform efficiently at high output power and low output power. The older ones among us remember some valiant attempts to achieve this goal, like turning off engine cyclinders.  The hybrid guys just simply turn the gasoline engine off when not needed.

Of course, in the world of whole house fans, we use electric motors to power our fans.  Typical AC (alternating current) fractional horsepower motors also suffer from the same problem. We specify and purchase them based on full load performance, but the part load (or low speed) efficiencies are not good at all. This is because a lot of electrical energy ends up being turned into heat while powering the internal electromagnets.

The reason we care about this, is because the ideal whole house fan will run at full load early in the evening to quickly cool the air in the house.  At this point, we care more about getting comfortable than cooling the structure – so big CFM is the answer.  However as the evening progresses, it’s not necessary for comfort to exhaust as much air. Also, the house probably will not cool down any faster just because we blow more air. An example of this is cooling hard boiled eggs under running cold water. If you turn up the tap all the way, do the eggs cool down faster ?

The solution is to use an electronically commutated motor (ECM). This type of motor is basically a permanent magnet motor with a small computer on top (was that technical enough?).  The bottom line is good efficiency at full speed, and extraordinary efficiency at part load. Take a look at our new 2.5eWHF as an example.

The chart at the top of the page shows the annual electrical consumption of several different WHF’s.  As you can see, the more that you run in low speed, the better the ECM looks.