Technical and Economic Evaluation of Efficiency Improvement after Rewinding in Low-Power Induction Motors: A Brazilian Case

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 11; no. 7; p. 1701
• Main Authors: Aguiar, Victor, Pontes, Ricardo, Ferreira, Fernando
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-07-2018
• Subjects: Cost analysis; Cost control; Cost effectiveness; Economic analysis; Efficiency; efficiency measurements; Electronic equipment tests; Energy; Energy conservation; Energy efficiency; equivalent circuit; Induction motors; industrial motors; life cycle costs; minimum efficiency performance standard (MEPS), cost-effectiveness methods; net savings; Power efficiency; redesign; retrofitting; Rewinding; stator winding; Viability
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en11071701

Nowadays the economic analysis of an induction motor’s life cycle is the clearest way to measure the viability of actions to promote energy-efficient technologies to the end user. The cost effectiveness in motors replacement by energy-efficient motors is a well-known practice that leads to energy savings, however this paper presents the cost-effectiveness of low-power induction motors which have their efficiency improved after rewinding. This process improves the investment viability and brings the greatest financial and energetic savings. In this paper, low-power induction motors are rewound and their efficiencies are measured by tests A and B from IEEE standard 112/2017. The rewound motors have better cost-effectiveness than replacement by IE3/Premium and even IE4/Super-Premium units. The rewound motors increase between 3 and 4 percentage points in relation to former efficiency and the payback is less than 2 years, regardless of the efficiency measurement method.