Ingersoll-Dresser Pumps
Industrial Pump Group
Chesapeake, VA

October 15, 1998

Daniel Bach
CEM Industries
470 N.56th Street
Chandler, AZ 85226

Dan,

I have tested a model 05145 Power Planner (460-480V, 250Amp) unit on an Ingersoll-Rand Rotary Reciprocating Air Compressor using a Schlumberger Vectron Solid State Multifunction Power Meter with Osaki Current Transformers. The equipment specification is listed in Appendix A.

When we run the I-R Compressor in the modulation mode it consumed an average 106.42kWHR without the Power Planner. With the Power Planner installed the average was 50.66kWHR. This resulted in a 52.4% reduction in kWh consumption. My best hypothesis is the Power Planner result is so high is due to the fact that the air compressor is loaded only 54.5% of the time, and runs unloaded the rest of the time. When the air compressor is unloaded, the drive motor only needs to supply enough power to overcome parasitic losses in the air compressor. The Power Planner takes great advantage of the 125 HP motor running under such a light load.

Currently the I-R Air Compressor has a Power Planner installed, with an updated control board and firmware. Testing on this upgrade has not been done yet with a power meter. Instead, a Fluke 39 Power Meter was used to check for power consumption. This results from the upgrade compared with results prior to the upgrade are quite similar.

Sincerely,
Leonard J. Barron, Jr.
Environmental/Energy Coordinator IDP
Chesapeake, VA