Agriculture is one of the most important industries in the United States today. Every year, the country exports about $140 billion in agricultural products. Accordingly, there are a great number of farms throughout the nation. By the last count, there were more than two million farms scattered around the country. For many of these farms, using electric motors can make a big difference. They have almost totally eliminated harmful emissions from the irrigation process as well as lowered the energy used on farms by more than 60%. When these motors have variable frequency drives or VFDs, the efficiency is only increased. If you are looking for ways to increase the efficiency of motors for farm irrigation systems, Reliable Plant has some idea for you.

Start with the right motor. It is possible to get smart motors for agricultural work but it is important to make sure you get the right one for what you are doing. This can cut down on the amount of downtime you experience, lower the maintenance costs you have to deal with, lower the amount of energy you use. Here are some things to consider when you are looking at ways to use motors for farm work or VFD rated motors.

Look at what speed control you will need. This is one of the first things you need to do when you are looking at smart motors. There are some VFD motors that have a limited ability to vary the speed at which they operate and there may be a low capacity for controlling the speed between starting and stopping the motor. If there is a soft started, it is important to note that it can only control the voltage and not the frequency of the motor.

Look at how you will need to start and stop the application you are using. In most instances, the times that the application is started and stopped is set based on the load. For some systems, it is possible to set an internal algorithm to program the times to change the voltage and torque when it is needed. The time it will take to start a motor can depend on the weight of the load. Newer equipment has more advanced ways to deal with this and they are able to set the times the motor starts and stops in a way that is not impacted by the weight of the load.

Look at if you need your motor to get to the full torque with no speed. There are VFDs that work very well when there is no speed at all but when there is full torque. These are able to create a torque when there is no speed at all in the motor. On the other hand, if the motor has a soft starter, it can generally only work at frequencies that range from 50 to 60 Hertz.

Turn off your motors when they are not in use. This is an easy thing to do but is something that many people, in all industries, fail to do. If you want to save energy, whether you are using VFDs or not, the number one way to make everything more efficient is to turn off the motors when you are not using them. There are some reasons people do not turn them off. They think that they risk doing damage to the motor when it goes through the process of turning on or off.

Prevent too much wear and tear on your motors. This is something that a lot of farmers and people in other industries worry about. There are good reasons for this. Maintenance of farm equipment can be very expensive. One way to avoid this is to use soft starters on your motors. This can mitigate any problems that are caused as the motor starts up.

The publication notes that in today’s world, the phrase “energy efficiency” has become one of the phrases du jour. It is possible to integrate that concept into all aspects of modern life and industry. Using VFD motors and others that are better at regulating and lowering the amount of energy they use can make a difference for farms around the United States.