Electric Motors

[Zephyr]

We're going to maybe try our hand at building a new style of aeration fan.


What kind of motors do you lot find last the best? Easiest to maintain? Service?

[LEP]

I always thought Baldor was a good motor. But have seen opinions to the contrary.

[dalek]

GE still seem to work good

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Perhaps we should be looking further forward, to a time when we can't afford to run big HP fans from grid power, thanks to CO2 taxes, and the cost of the renewable energy fraud.
We may end up like Mallee and be forced to generate our own, at any cost.
With that in mind, maybe fans should be DC, save the cost and inefficiency of inverters.
Possibly incorporate VFD so they could safely run at any level of power output.

[Sheepwheat]

Single phase or 3 phase?

[farming101]

U.S. Motors have been good. Now owned by Nidec, a Japanese Co.

Does Manitoba Hydro still have an interest in written pole motors? Never heard too much about them.
Maybe that's a good thing

[woodland]

Perhaps we should be looking further forward, to a time when we can't afford to run big HP fans from grid power, thanks to CO2 taxes, and the cost of the renewable energy fraud.
We may end up like Mallee and be forced to generate our own, at any cost.
With that in mind, maybe fans should be DC, save the cost and inefficiency of inverters.
Possibly incorporate VFD so they could safely run at any level of power output.

Cheaper for us to generate three phase than to get line power. The free heat from the genset is a bonus. VFD is expensive to buy but well worth it (ability to reverse a plugged auger is priceless) if you think you need it.

Motors seem to not be an issue especially if oversized. Usually more issues with plugs, wiring, and breakers. Amps aren’t much different from a smaller loaded up motor than an bigger one spinning easily.

Three phase is fantastic. The higher the voltage the better. Learned a lot more than I expected to the last couple months.

[Herc]

Baldor or US electric would be my first choice. We have enough Weg as well, but have had a couple fail on aeration fans.

[TSIPP]

I love my VFD in the shop, it’s great for the milling machine lathe and 10 feet tall drill press, I do use a home made rotary 3 phase converter for the stick and mig welders.

Most of the smaller 5 horse and under motors just don’t seem to last very long but the 3 phase motors just keep going.

[sumdumguy]

Three Phase right out of Regina cost $100,000 for a mile and a half underground. But those motors will prolly last forever. Winter is brutal at a seed plant. We blew through 5 to 10 - 10 hsp single phase motors. We tried them all, Stockdale Electric has a fellow named Andre, he’s your man for info. The starting circuit, centrificle switch and capacitors were the problem in our case but where the fan runs continuous with no stresses on a grain bin any motor should be ok (except for power surges.)

[ALBERTAFARMER4]

Perhaps we should be looking further forward, to a time when we can't afford to run big HP fans from grid power, thanks to CO2 taxes, and the cost of the renewable energy fraud.
We may end up like Mallee and be forced to generate our own, at any cost.
With that in mind, maybe fans should be DC, save the cost and inefficiency of inverters.
Possibly incorporate VFD so they could safely run at any level of power output.

https://youtu.be/osAZeLs6zmY https://youtu.be/osAZeLs6zmY

[chuckChuck]

A4, Very interesting video on Turntide smart motors that are improving efficiency in a very significant way. They are targeting ag buildings and driving down costs for farmers. It would be interesting to know whether they have an application for aeration fans.

When we don't have to do much drying we often just run our fans when the sun is shining so that we use more solar electricity. Of course we can't run our many aeration fans all at once, but every little bit helps reduce fossil fuel electricity usage.

[furrowtickler]

Add this to the system to increase capacity?
Just a suggestion is all

[helmsdale]

Add this to the system to increase capacity?
Just a suggestion is all

If my squirrel cage fans are 10 horsepower, what's the appropriate squirrel:horse ratio?

[WiltonRanch]

If my squirrel cage fans are 10 horsepower, what's the appropriate squirrel:horse ratio?

How many acorns per kilowatt hour?