# Save Electricity; Replace V-Belts with Cogged Belts



## downtownjr (Apr 8, 2008)

Many of us use electric motors around the farm on hay elevators, air compressors, and small augers as examples. You also use them for blower fans on your furnaces and maybe other devices or equipment. For devices and equipment that see a lot of hours of usage, you may find a cost savings in electricity when you replace the old worn out V-Belt with a cogged belt. A cogged belt for your furnace blower motor or air compressor could save you 2% in energy costs over a V-belt that is at its top efficiency.

A cogged belt runs a few dollars more, but in high hour motors the small savings will quickly pay for itself. If you desire not to replace the V-belt, add the belt to your preventive maintenance plan. The efficiency deteriorates in a standard V-Belt by as much as 5% over time if slippage occurs because the belt is not periodically re-tensioned.

The Cogged belts have slots that run perpendicular to the belt's length. The slots reduce the bending resistance of the belt. Cogged belts can be used with the same pulleys as equivalently rated V-belts. They run cooler, last longer, and have an the higher efficiency than that of standard V-belts.

Also, watch the air compressor, an air compressor that is not turned off will run a number of hours even when no one is in the shop. A sub-metered maintenance building I recently audited spent approximately $1,272 over the past 12 months because it had an air compressor that ran when not in use due to an air leak. There have been reports of factories spending over $10,000 for electricity a year because of air compressor leaks. A quick shop inspection during the upcoming off-season could save you a few dollars towards that new shop tool. Good luck and be safe around the farm!


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I have my air compressor motor starter wired into the lights in the shop, lights are off, so is the air compressor.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Another thing, and this was explained to me by a person replacing the old three phase meter on the farm with a new electronic meter.

Anytime a electric motor starts it creates a much larger current draw than when it's actually running under a full load. The electric company knows this and has to size transmission lines, transformers, etc to handle these spikes, so when a motor starts on the old meters they spin up instantly to reflect the full current draw of the motor starting BUT they _coast_ back down to the actual amount being used, so the larger the starting draw the more your charged for. The new meters handle all this electronically.

So if your running a lot of electric motors or even a few large ones, their is a few ways to handle this, one way is to install soft start motor starters that gradually speed the motor up to avoid the large spikes but this can get extremely expensive.

A more economical way is anytime you have several motors starting at the same time is to install Dayton ON Delay timer relays so all the motors don't start at once. For example on our pneumatic grain mover, the 20hp motor on the blower starts alone followed by the airlock and rotary screen 4 seconds later followed by the feed auger and fines takeaway auger several seconds after the 2nd set of motors start. So it's the 20hp, followed by the two 1hp motors 4 seconds later followed by two more 1hp motors 8 seconds after the 20hp motor starts. On the continuous flow dryer I'm installing now to replace the old batch the top auger starts followed 4 seconds later by the 10hp motor on the 8 inch vertical bin auger.

The ON delay timers from Dayton are extremely easy to install. Cut the hot wire going to the motor starter or relay and hook the half coming from what controls it to the #1 terminal on the delay timer and hook the load terminal (3) on the timer to the motor starter or relay.

We gain some savings on three phase with the delay timers but the savings would be greater if your running single phase motors instead of 3 phase as single phase motors use roughly twice the amperage as a same size three phase motor. If you have supply problems this will definitely help to avoid low voltage situations as all your motors won't be starting at once in a multiple motor setup.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Staged start and softstarts can save you a lot if your power is demand metered (thats where they charge for kw and peak draw) but even if you aren't demand metered, savings in conductor sizing and panel sizing is huge. Also can let you run stuff on a much smaller generator than what would be required for remote dryers pumps etc.


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## askinner (Nov 15, 2010)

I've been looking at installing a VFD (variable frequency drive) to my irrigation pump set, so I can match the pump output to what I am running, e.g. gun, sprays etc. You can set these up to automatically control the pump speed based on a pre-programmed pressure you desire, and also control things like auto start and stop, soft start, loss of prime and burst pipe protection. Remote control is another feature of them. The only hurdle I'm yet to overcome is the price tag on them







But I reckon the price would be offset in the first year by not having to throttle the outlet back when I'm not using the pump to full capacity.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

askinner said:


> I've been looking at installing a VFD (variable frequency drive) to my irrigation pump set, so I can match the pump output to what I am running, e.g. gun, sprays etc. You can set these up to automatically control the pump speed based on a pre-programmed pressure you desire, and also control things like auto start and stop, soft start, loss of prime and burst pipe protection. Remote control is another feature of them. The only hurdle I'm yet to overcome is the price tag on them
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I did something similar with a Vector drive on the hot corn takeaway auger from the dryer. When the dryer speeds up and the load on the takeaway auger increases it automatically adjusts motor speed to keep the auger motor running at a certain amperage (load) range. Keeps it from stalling out when loaded and also beating itself to death when the dryer is discharging at a much lower rate because of wetter corn going in.


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## askinner (Nov 15, 2010)

mlappin said:


> I did something similar with a Vector drive on the hot corn takeaway auger from the dryer. When the dryer speeds up and the load on the takeaway auger increases it automatically adjusts motor speed to keep the auger motor running at a certain amperage (load) range. Keeps it from stalling out when loaded and also beating itself to death when the dryer is discharging at a much lower rate because of wetter corn going in.


How have you found the reliability of this? I have heard they are quite sensitive to any abnormalities in supply voltage/frequency. They really are a great piece of kit though, the functionality of them is almost endless in a pump set.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

I've got 3 vfd's on my sawmill, the largest is only 1.5 hp. If you keep the VFD very close to the motor they are pretty good, on the in feed side, they don't like really bad power but you can get filters to clean up the power, I think they are just a big iron core with wire wrapped around them.



askinner said:


> How have you found the reliability of this? I have heard they are quite sensitive to any abnormalities in supply voltage/frequency. They really are a great piece of kit though, the functionality of them is almost endless in a pump set.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

askinner said:


> How have you found the reliability of this? I have heard they are quite sensitive to any abnormalities in supply voltage/frequency. They really are a great piece of kit though, the functionality of them is almost endless in a pump set.


Worked flawlessly last year drying corn. We've always had a good clean supply of 3 phase though being on a main line.

I have another one rigged up with a male and female plug for our truck loading auger. Once the center of the bin has run dry and the sweep is in we used to use a smaller auger that ran slower as the main truck loading auger ran pretty fast and beats itself to death with just a sweep feeding it. Now we just unplug the truck loader from the bin, hang the 10hp VFD on the bin wall, plug it into the bin and the auger into the VFD and just slow the auger down to a speed better suited to the output of the sweep auger. Is also really nice to be able to reverse the auger so it cleans completely out when we are finished with it for the year.

My next plan is to install one on my metal lathes, older lathe with limited speeds makes a very difficult time getting a seal quality finish if you can't speed it up enough. I plan on replacing the 1750 rpm single phase motor with a three phase 3600 rpm motor.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

askinner said:


> I've been looking at installing a VFD (variable frequency drive) to my irrigation pump set, so I can match the pump output to what I am running, e.g. gun, sprays etc. You can set these up to automatically control the pump speed based on a pre-programmed pressure you desire, and also control things like auto start and stop, soft start, loss of prime and burst pipe protection. Remote control is another feature of them. The only hurdle I'm yet to overcome is the price tag on them  But I reckon the price would be offset in the first year by not having to throttle the outlet back when I'm not using the pump to full capacity.


Just be careful with VFD's, they tend to create harmonics that the power company may want you to filter out....harmonic filters ate expensive!


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## askinner (Nov 15, 2010)

Thanks guys, took the plunge and installed a 55kw Hitachi inverter. I even set it up with PID control (maintains constant pressure regardless of what's running), and it works like a charm, I love it! I just dial in the pressure I want and hit start, even have it hooked into the wifi so I can stop and start it, or view stats on my phone or computer.

Mike, you're spot on about the harmonics!! Had the power company come around 2 days after commissioning saying they're picking up a fault with the transformer. I didn't say anything, but knew straight away what the cause was, and turned the carrier frequency down, haven't seen them since. I still plan on installing a line reactor to help smooth things out.


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