HF Motion 
The investment in animal husbandry is usually large, and the health & survival rate of animals are directly related to the final profits. Therefore, ensuring the daily health of animals is one of the key factors to maintain business efficiency and sustainable operations, and it is necessary to minimize animal diseases. Only by reducing disease and mortality can production efficiency be improved.
In the case of concentrated breeding, an indoor breeding environment is often indispensable. However, due to high breeding density and hot weather, the indoor environment causes high indoor temperatures, excessive harmful gases such as NH3 and CO2, and hypoxia, which are not conducive to the healthy growth of animals.
Current Status of Ventilation in Livestock Breeding Industry
The current trend of fans used in the breeding industry is to use EC fans instead of AC fans. EC fans refer to fans equipped with BLDC motors and controllers.
However, the technologies owned by suppliers and target users are often out of sync. Currently, in the livestock breeding industry, a considerable number of users are using axial flow fans equipped with AC induction motors. So far, AC induction motors are still widely used in various industries, but the shortcomings of this motor are also obvious:
- Low efficiency, long-term energy consumption cost difference far exceeds the cost advantage of the AC induction motor itself.
- Most of them cannot adjust the air volume, only start and stop, and the animals feel uncomfortable.
- The starting current is very high, so the transformer capacity needs to be increased
- The rotation speed is high and requires belt or gearbox transmission.
- Sensors cannot be connected and the speed cannot be adjusted based on feedback such as ambient temperature, oxygen content, etc.
Electric motors consume about 46% of the world’s total electricity generation. If the efficiency of the motor is increased by 1%, the world can save 66.86 billion KWh of electricity annually. Therefore, the efficiency of the motor is crucial.
Currently, AC induction motors are still widely used in various industries, mainly due to their low cost, high iteration costs, and inadequate technology popularization. But users have overlooked an important cost, which is operational costs. Continuously running motors, especially those that run 24 hours a day, have significant differences in long-term energy consumption costs if their efficiency is different.
Compared with AC fans, EC fans have the following main advantages:
– The structure and principle of the motor determine that the energy consumption efficiency of the BLDC motor is 18% higher than that of the AC induction motor.
– The starting current is small, reducing the impact on the power grid and eliminating the need for large-capacity transformers.
– Free speed adjustment to meet different air volume requirements, small fluctuations in air volume and temperature, and animals feel comfortable.
– The motor speed matches the fan speed range, such as 90~450rpm, without the need for a belt or gearbox, reduce power losses.
– Use variable speed and low speed operation instead of full speed/stop to reduce energy consumption.
– The controller can be connected to external sensors to realize external feedback linkage such as ambient temperature, oxygen content, etc. to adjust the speed.
– Support Modbus/CAN connection for external control to achieve remote and intelligent control
Case Study and Comparisons
The industry where axial flow fans are most used in indoor breeding environments is the cattle breeding industry, such as the countries of Brazil, USA, Australia, Argentina and others, which with high beef export rankings, they have a large number of cattle sheds and use a large number of axial flow fans regulate the living environment of cattle.
In the Brazilian state of Goias, the soil quality is good and there are large areas of pasture. Agriculture and animal husbandry play an important role in the economic development of the state. The livestock breeding industry ranks second in the state’s output value, with a cattle population of 18.5 million. Axial flow fans are widely used in local cattle sheds, and the power consumption cost of the fans is the main part of the operating costs of the cattle sheds.
Taking a medium-sized cattle farm in Goias state as an example, statistics and analysis of daily electricity consumption are carried out:
Through analysis and comparison, it can be seen that there are differences in the efficiency and power consumption of EC fans and AC fans. Statistics and comparisons over a longer period of time show that the advantages of EC fans in reducing energy consumption costs are very obvious, and the electricity bills saved are far exceeded the equipment cost difference between EC fans and AC fans, and has even been able to recover the investment cost of EC fans.
High-efficiency Solar Technology E-Hybrid Power Supply
In addition to the energy saving of the EC fans itself, the application of solar energy will minimize the energy consumption of the fans. HF Motion’s E-Hybrid power supply solution is used to drive EC fans, which can achieve parallel & complementary output of solar energy/AC power/battery, and direct DC output to the BLDC motor controller to avoid inverter losses. It is also possible to implement an E-Hybrid power supply to provide centralized functions for multiple fans to facilitate energy management and reduce losses.
The E-Hybrid power supply has the following advantages:
- No matter how the solar power generation changes, AC mains power or battery will complement in real time, and the power output will always meet the current speed requirement of the fans.
- When there is sufficient sunshine, the solar energy is directly output to the fans without going through the battery. Only the excess solar energy is used to charge the battery, which can extend the battery life.
- As long as there is sunlight, solar energy has output and can be utilized. Compared with traditional solar energy solutions, solar energy in the morning, evening and cloudy days can be fully utilized in the E-Hybrid power system.
- When there is no AC power or battery, the power following algorithm can automatically adjust the fan speed according to the real-time solar power, to achieve variable speed without stopping the fan.
Still taking the cattle shed as an example, there are scenarios such as sunny days, cloudy days, cattle going out for fun during the day, have electricity supply at night, or no electricity at night. The specific operating mode of each scene is as follows:
Conclusion
As can be seen from the above operating modes, when using E-Hybrid power supply, no matter what the scenario, solar power output is given priority, the excess solar energy is used to charge the battery, and AC mains power can only be used as a backup. This can minimize the electricity cost of livestock breeding industry.
In addition to reducing energy consumption, the EC motor solution using BLDC motors and controllers has incomparable advantages over AC induction motors in terms of intelligent control, human-computer interaction, and centralized control. Through these characteristics, it can reduce the time required for operation and maintenance, manpower, etc. Thereby significantly reducing operating costs.
