Energy saving potential in an airport

Situation

Two filter configurations were compared within an air intake installation for creating pure air at an Austrian airport. The filter stage concerned is equipped with of 30 filters.

Method

The energy use of the fan motor was determined with the help of the building management software and an energy measurement device.

Test phase

Testing began in January 2009. From this date, the installation was equipped and ran simultaneously with a frequency inverter to achieve constant operating parameters. To make the comparison, standard synthetic pocket filters class M 5 (acc. to EN 779:2012) were interchanged with Viledon T 60 compact pocket filters, using brand new filters of each type. The Viledon T 60 filters (M 6 acc. to EN 779:2012) were shown to provide an optimum solution with regard to both energy efficiency and filtration performance. During the test phase, energy costs for both filter solutions were measured by the building management software data and the energy measuring equipment installed by the Viledon team.

Results

Both the data from the building management software and the energy measurement equipment conclusively demonstrated the superiority of the Viledon solution. Thanks to the lower pressure drop of the Viledon compact pocket filters, an energy saving of 20 % could be achieved compared to the other filter system. This saving was achieved as a result of a lower fan speed (lower frequency) needed to achieve the same operating parameters as with the previous system.

The identified energy savings are typical for an air intake system and can be achieved in this example year after year, without requiring any additional investment.