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energy efficiency

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Case Study: Citizen Industries Limited

Posted on 15. June 2018

PROJECT OVERVIEW
Citizen Industries Limited has been a leading manufacturer of Air Handling Units (AHU), Lab furnishing equipment and Biotech equipment in India for three decades. In 2016, punker helped Citizen reduce the number of different fan wheels used in their AHUs by 90% to only 19 by switching to the punker D-Series.

Streamlining the vast number of components used in their products saved our client time and money and, at the same time, made the Citizen Air Handling Units even more efficient – helping their clients save operating costs in turn.

OUR CLIENT
Citizen Industries Limited was established in 1987 with its headquarter in Ahmedabad, India. The company is a leading manufacturer of Air Handling Units (AHU), Lab furnishing equipment and Biotech equipment in India. They serve renowned goverment, public sector or privat company clients from various industries such as Agriculture, Education, Food & Beverage, Health Care, Pharmaceuticals, Petroleum Industry, or Textiles and Garments. Citizen sets a high value on designing energy efficient, low maintenance and highly reliable HVAC equipment.

CHALLENGE
Citizen Industries and punker had been working closely for more than 23 years in selecting the optimal fan wheels for each AHU requirement, always aiming for maximum energy efficiency. This lead to a large fan wheel variety, as for each project, the optimal fan wheel execution of width, hub, bore and inlet cone was selected. In total, punker supplied 205 different variations of the HLS 70, HLR 70, and R63D2 series, as well as another 69 corresponding inlet cones. The administrative effort of product drawings and technical documentation, as well as the production and transport time, grew with the number of different items.

Citizen started to look into the option of building their own plug fans instead of purchasing them from a supplier. The goal was to offer a high efficiency plug fan that could be installed in any future air handling project, irrespective of the required air flow and pressure requirements.

Supply fan wheels for new AHU plug fans
Increase overall system efficiency
Reduce overall lead times and inventory of varied items

SOLUTION
punker felt they could support this challenge with the then newly introduced fan wheel series Dclassic. Dclassic is a highly standardized fan wheel series specially designed for use in plug and plenum fans for air handling and ventilation units. The mechanical efficiency static of 75% is perfectly suited to exceed our client’s energy efficiency requirements. The Dclassic works best in a pressure range from 1.500-2.500 Pa (6 – 10 in. WG – AMCA Class II) and is available in a diameter range of 225 – 1000 mm (9″ to 39 3/8″). This welded steel design with a maximum tip speed 75 m/s (246 fps) is powder coated by default. The well proven Taperlock hub system makes it compatible with any shaft motor option. The use of VSD (variable speed drive) allows for actuating various operating points.

punker introduced the concept of this new fan wheel series to Citizen and presented an analysis showing that the future use of Dclassic fan wheels could eliminate 80% of the article variety that Citizen had bought from punker over the past 20 years. In combination with supporting services from punker, such as a customized DLL file with performance data for Citizen’s own AHU configuration software, the use of Dclassic would allow for a straightforward plug fan design. punker supplies the Dclassic fan wheels with a corresponding inlet cone for optimum air flow. The inlet cone ED 11 is equipped with a connector for airflow measurement by pressure tap, allowing for easy monitoring and adjustment of the AHU’s system performance.

A comparison of the performance curves of previously used fan wheels and the Dclassic showed an increase in static efficiency of up to 5%. Sample wheels of different widths were supplied for comparison measurements at the Citizen works, which confirmed the calculated performance. Our client thus completed the design of their future plug fans and place the first order of Dclassic fan wheels.

Citizen places orders with variable quantities, based on the demand for each respective AHU project. Due to the standardized character of the Dclassic fan wheel series, punker can deliver them in short cycle times, optimize shipping volumes and container loads according to demand, and provide safe packaging for sea transport.

The switch to the Dclassic fan wheels offered another substiantial advantage for our client: Citizen now sources only 19 different fan wheels from punker, which reduces the number of different components by 90%.

OPINIONS

Our main objective was to design our own plug fan and increase the system efficiency of our Air Handling Units. On top of that, we reduced our component variety to a sizable quantum which helped us save time and inventory carrying cost.

Kamalesh Mehta
CEO | Citizen Group – www.citizenindia.com

A standardization like this leads to a WIN-WIN-situation for both the customer and manufacturer side: fast availability, cost-efficiency, reference diversity, etc. With this in mind, the development of the D-Series had two main objectives: 1) Standardization 2) Simultaneous opportunity of a new development according to the highest technological requirements.

Juergen Beinke
Global Sales Director (CEO) | punker Group

2018 AHR Expo

Posted on 2. February 2018

The new Dlight - welded for HVAC applications.

In 2018, energy efficiency was again one of the topics exhibitors and visitors were concerned with at the 2018 AHR Expo, which was held from January 22 -24 in Chicago. Thus, the punker exhibition team was thrilled about the great interest with which the high-efficiency D-Series fan wheels were met once again. Presented for the first time was an extremely lightweight fan impeller in a welded execution: the Dlight – welded.

New Product: Dlight – welded

With the Dlight – welded, punker adds to the existing D-Series, a product range of energy-efficient diffusor fan wheels unhoused applications such as plug fans, plenum fans, and air handling. The welded aluminum impeller offers a high ventilation system performance paired with low weight and pleasant acoustics. It is suited for applications that require a static pressure increase of 4 – 5.5″ WG (AMCA Class I) and compatible with various AC or EC drives.

AHR Expo – International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition

AHR Expo is the most important exhibition for Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigerating on the American continents. With an estimated 70,000 visitors and 2,100 exhibiting companies, this year’s show is the largest event since it’s start in 1930. In the good company of industry giants like ebm-papst, Ziehl-Abegg, Rosenberg and Comefri, punker exhibited fan wheels “Engineered in Germany – Made in the USA” for the seventh year in a row.

HVAC Manufacturers confident About Economic Outlook

The record-breaking visitor count is congruent with HVAC manufacturers’ extremely positive outlook for the fiscal year of 2018. According to the latest AHR Expo and ASHRAE Journal Annual Economic Outlook Survey, 89% of responders expect excellent or good growth, up 15% from the already positive outlook in 2017. The development of sales indicates that this is not just a snapshot: 69% of respondents reported higher sales in 2017 versus 57% in 2016. The percentage of businesses with a significantly higher sales growth (more than 10% year-on-year) increased as well, from Und 23% in 2016 to 34% in 2017.

punker meets Market Requirements of Reliability and Energy Efficiency

With such a positive outlook for the new fiscal year, many manufacturers are looking for the latest and best technologies and products. With regard to customer expectations, respondents continue to consider reliability and energy efficiency as the most influential factors in their 2018 buying decisions. With the D-Series, punker offers the right solution for these market requirements. This was also reflected in an even higher number of visitors on our booth, compared to the previous year.

Markets

ISH 2017 in Frankfurt

Posted on 28. March 2017

For more than 50 years, the ISH has been considered the leading exposition for innovative bathroom design, efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning and renewable energies. ISH is held every other year in Frankfurt am Main. From March 14 through 18 of this year, 2,482 exhibitors from 61 countries presented themselves at the Frankfurt fair ground. One of them was punker.

Innovative and efficient – just like our new product family which we presented at ISH in Frankfurt. The new D-Series was developed for customers all over the world. But not only the new D-series found its way onto our stand. With the Slight we offered a look into the future of our upcoming new product family: the S-Series, available successively starting Fall 2017, will eventually replace several existing fan wheel series for use in scroll housings, thus further optimizing and streamlining our product portfolio.

In addition to these product innovations, we invited our visitors to give our web-based fan wheel selection puncat WEB a try. A real eye-catcher was the “NEXT GENERATION” prototype of laser-welded, backward-curved fan wheels made by punker: improved energy efficiency, reduced material input, decreased noise emission.

As a trainee in the Sales and Marketing department, I was able to visit this year’s ISH and gained a lot of valuable impressions. How do we present our brand and our products? What are the key factors when dealing with visitors on our stand? What are the trends in the HVAC market? How do our competitors present themselves? While these questions can be answered theoretically, they are answered a lot more thoroughly and ostensively in the field.

During my short visit to ISH I was able to gain a lot more insights than initially expected. This might be mainly due to our team on-site who showed me the ropes and walked the fair ground with me to give me a comprehensive overview of relevant products and the overall market situation. Seeing the exhibition stands of companies I, until then, only new in theory was very interesting and insightful. I was able to take a look at competitors’ products as well as our customers’ products in which our fan wheels are incorporated.

Markets

AHR Expo Las Vegas – Energy efficiency in the desert

Posted on 17. February 2017

End of January 2017, the AHR participation (largest trade show for Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration in the US) was on punker’s agenda, already for the 6^th time in a row. The presentation of the new, highly efficient punker D-Series was a home run – this year’s show in Las Vegas was all about energy efficiency.

The exposition took place in the Las Vegas Convention Center (Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, 2017). Honestly, we had some doubts if Las Vegas was the right place for an industry trade show. But only 30 minutes after the opening these doubts proved wrong: The enormous appeal of ‘fabulous Las Vegas’ brought a visitors record already on day one. Obviously, many visitors combined a visit of Las Vegas and the trade show by arriving already the weekend before.

Our booth in the Central Hall was crowded by visitors on Monday morning: Frank Mueller (Area Sales Manager North, Central and South America), Juergen Beinke (Director Global Sales) and myself had many opportunities to spread the enthusiasm for our new energy efficient D-Series. While the interest in energy efficient solutions was still low during the 2016 AHR Expo in Orlando, it had sparked very strong interest by this year.

Energy Efficiency Everywhere

The yearly survey amongst the trade show visitors by the ASHRAE Journal (monthly journal published by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) confirmed the increased awareness of energy efficient solutions: 60,5% of the 700 respondents indicated that energy efficiency is the most important aspect for their customers (ahead: 74,2% Reliability, 70,4% Cost). Only 4% indicated that customers are not willing to pay more for energy efficiency, almost 80% confirmed the increased willingness to pay more, another 80% is actively on the lookout for ‘green’ or sustainable products on the trade show. However, only 25% of the respondents notice a support or even incentives by the state to change to energy efficient products or technologies.

By presenting ‚Increasing Energy Efficiency with the new punker Diffuser Technology’ in the New Product & Technology Theater of the AHR Expo, Frank Mueller and Juergen Beinke succeeded in demonstrating to even more trade show visitors, how the punker D-Series fan wheels increase the energy efficiency of free blowing HVAC systems and reduce the operating costs at the same time.

“Made in USA” and “America first”

Apart from energy efficiency, another aspect was a hot topic in many business discussions: The question if our products are made in USA. Already in 2016, we put a strong focus on showing that we are producing in the US. The significance of ‘made in USA’, however, has even more increased, mainly due to the ‘America first’ attitude of the Trump administration and their announcement to impose punitive tariff duties on certain imports from Germany. Whatever the reason for this question was – the fact, that punker produces in the USA for the US market is key to our successful business relations in this market.

Next AHR Expo is from Jan. 22-24, 2018, in Chicago. Already looking forward to your visit on our booth No. 3337!

Solutions

The new D-Series

Posted on 3. October 2016

Endurance and efficiency – these are not only the unique features of our punker fan wheels but this is characteristic for the whole punker team. Our key objective is to continuously optimize each product, no matter how good it is. Based on the former R63D wheels, we developed a new, highly efficient fan wheel series with integrated diffuser technology – in short: The “D-Series“.

The unique characteristics of this series, specifically designed for unhoused fan wheels, is more than ‘state of the art’. The mechanical efficiency static of up to 75% is perfect to meet or exceed our industrial and ventilation customers’ energy efficiency requirements. We also focus on our customers’ cost effectiveness. This is why our R&D Team designed each of the 3 varieties of the D-Series not only with highest durability but also with optimal material input in mind.

The Dlight made of aluminum is available in tapped version for a diameter range of 225-630 mm (9″ – 25″). It is preferably used in pressure ranges from 1000 – 1500 Pa (4 – 6 in. WG – AMCA Class I) with a tip speed of up to 55 m/s (180 fps). This fan wheel stands up successfully against the already available competitors’ products.
The Dclassic works best in a pressure range from 1.500-2.500 Pa (6 – 10 in. WG – AMCA Class II) and is available in a diameter range of 225 – 1000 mm (9″ to 39 3/8″). This welded steel design with a maximum tip speed 75 m/s (246 fps) is powder coated by default and comes with the well proven taperlock system.
The diffuser series would not be complete without the Dprime made of aluminum for a performance range of 2500-4000 Pa (10 – 16 in. WG – AMCA Class III), additionally optimized with regards to acoustics by airfoiled blades. This fan wheel is currently still in test stage and will be presented to the public in spring 2017.

Being Sales Director of the punker group, I am firmly convinced that this new series with all its features provides an attractive product range that enables our customers to meet the current requirements for energy efficiency but also the costs resulting from these new requirements. With its three different types light, classic and prime the D-Series offers a big variety of applications and combines a lot of benefits in one single product family: super silent, absolutely efficient, extremely robust, surprisingly small and exceedingly lightweight.

I am very much looking forward to show you all these benefits of our new wheel series in a face-to-face conversation. Meeting opportunities will be for example at the AHR Expo in Las Vegas or during the ISH in Frankfurt, Germany. Or feel free to contact our Sales Team at your earliest convenience.

I would like to take the opportunity to express my sincere thanks to the whole punker team as well as for demonstrating amazing team spirit by developing these fantastic new products.

Discover the new D-Series at the following trade shows:

AHR Expo Las Vegas
International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition
Jan. 30 – Feb. 01, 2017
Booth No. C1832

Please join our presentation in the New Product & Technology Theatre:
“Increasing Fan Wheel Efficiency with New Diffuser Technology”
Date/Time: Monday, 1/30/2017 – 3:15 pm
Location: Theater B

ISH Frankfurt, Germany
The world’s leading trade fair for the Bathroom Experience, Building, Energy, Air-conditioning Technology, Renewable Energies
March 14-18, 2017
Hall 11.1, Booth No. C28

Facts & Figures Markets

New Energy Efficiency Standards in the USA

Posted on 11. February 2016

In my blog post “ENERGY EFFICIENCY- THE HVAC-INDUSTRY IS ENTERING NEW TERRITORY” from October 2015, I talked about developments regarding energy efficiency in the USA.
In December 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) finalized new energy conservation standards for commercial air conditioners, heat pumps and commercial warm-air furnaces.

According to Ernest Moniz, U.S. Energy Secretary, this “marks the largest energy saving standard in history and demonstrates that America is leading the effort to reduce energy costs and cut carbon emissions.”
The DOE estimates the new program will save businesses up to $167 billion in energy costs over the lifetime of the equipment. Additionally, carbon monoxide discharge will be reduced by as much as 885 million metric tons over a period of thirty years.

The new directive was finalized with cooperation between the DOE and 17 stakeholder groups including industry organization, manufacturers, efficiency organizations and institutes. The new standard will be implemented in two phases:

Beginning January 1, 2018 commercial air conditioners and commercial warm air furnaces must achieve thirteen percent improvement in efficiency.
In 2023, an additional fifteen percent increase will be required.

How can punker help manufacturers of commercial air conditioning systems?

The DOE’s final ruling delivers a clear regulatory roadmap to manufacturers of commercial air conditioning systems. This will force manufacturers to rise to the challenge of optimizing their products accordingly.
As a leading developer and manufacturer of radial fan wheels, punker has been focusing its product development on energy efficiency since the European Union’s Eco-design Directive “ErP” (Energy related Products) extended its scope to air conditioning and ventilation systems in a 2009 revision.

The ErP defines minimum efficiency requirements for fans with an output range of 0.125 kw to 500 kw and took effect in two phases in 2013 and 2015. The assessment takes into account the efficiency of the entire systems, consisting of the motor, the transmission (belt drive, for example) and the fan wheel.

The fan wheel has a large impact on the overall efficiency of the fan system. This is where manufacturers of unhoused fan applications can rely on punker’s extensive knowledge and expertise. Our product portfolio offers suitable fan wheels for plug fans and plenum fans to meet the DOE’s new efficiency requirements. Our fan wheel series R63D HVAC and D light, are constructed to achieve the highest static efficiencies at optimal working points worldwide.

Here at punker, we look forward to assisting manufacturers in turning these challenges into opportunities.

Markets R&D

Energy Efficiency – The HVAC-Industry is entering New Territory

Posted on 23. October 2015

As punker’s new Area Sales Manager North, Central and South America, I travel to punker LLC on a regular basis to support my colleagues in further establishing the North American market. On my last stay at punker LLC in October, punker LLC’s Managing Director, Ryan Kilkelly, and I visited the Annual AMCA Meeting in California.

The Air Movement and Control Association (AMCA) is an international, not-for-profit association of the world’s manufacturers of fans, louvers, dampers, air curtains, air flow measurement devices, ducts, acoustic attenuators and other air system components. AMCA invites its members regularly to discuss innovations and developments concerning the HVAC industry. This year’s Annual Meeting focused on the topic of energy conservation and energy efficiency. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is preparing a new program for energy efficiency in commercial air conditioners, heat pumps and commercial warm-air furnaces which is expected to be finalized within the next couple of month. For most of the manufacturers within the HVAC sector, this programm will mean venturing into uncharted terrain.

Even though Washington has not defined any standards or regulations yet, AMCA expects that by 2019, energy effiency in the HVAC sector will have to be increased by 20%. The U.S. administration has, however, already enacted a subsidy program of 9 billion US$ for energy conserving industry applications. Manufacutrers seeking to submit products for funding will first have to get these products certified by the DOE. Standards have not been finalized for this programm, however. AMCA will represent the industry’s interests during the process of finalizing these standards.

Energy efficiency has defined product development at punker since the European Union’s Ecodesign Directive extended its scope to air conditioning and ventilation systems in a 2009 revision. With our extensive know-how and energy-efficient fan wheel series like R63D-HVAC, the DOE’s future program poses an excellent opportunity for establishing the punker brand in the US.