THE PRODUCT:
Pumps are used in a wide variety of commercial and industrial applications to pump water such as water distribution, agricultural irrigation, commercial HVAC, and pressure boosting.
THE STANDARD:
The current standards for pumps took effect in 2020 and are the first efficiency standards for these products. The standards, which were negotiated by manufacturers and efficiency advocates, apply to clean water pumps between 1 and 200 horsepower.
DOE initiated a rulemaking in 2021 to consider amended standards for pumps.
*Pump energy index (PEI) is the metric for pump efficiency where PEI is a ratio of the power consumption of a given pump to the power consumption of a pump that just meets the minimum standards. A pump with a PEI of 0.9, for example, consumes 10% less power than a pump that just meets the minimum requirements. The energy-saving benefits of variable-speed drives (VSDs) are captured in the PEI metric such that a pump with a VSD has a significantly better (i.e. lower) PEI rating than a constant-speed pump.
KEY FACTS:
Beyond improvements to the efficiency of bare pumps via hydraulic redesign, large energy savings can be achieved through the use of variable-speed drives (VSDs). In variable-load applications, the change in pump load is typically met by throttling the pump using valves, which leads to significant energy waste. In contrast, using a VSD allows for reducing the pump speed to match the load. Reducing the speed of the pump can yield significant energy savings since input power decreases with the cube of the pump speed.
