High Efficiency Commercial Refrigeration Motors

Refrigeration and air conditioning in buildings, industry, and transportation account for approximately 10 quads of U.S. primary energy consumption. Motors power the equipment and control the environment in advanced cooling applications and thus their energy consumption represents a significant part of their operating and life cycle costs.Fan motors for heating, cooling and ventilation run the most hours and therefore provide a significant opportunity to lower operating costs through improved energy efficiency.QM Power Q-Sync motors can significantly improve the efficiencies and/or reduce the upfront costs of existing and planned commercial refrigeration solutions. This breakthrough technology uses a novel yet simple controller design to reduce cost and increase efficiency of electric motors. Phase I funding will be used to design, assemble and test prototype Q-Sync motors for commercial refrigeration in order to demonstrate efficiencies greater than comparable motors in the 7-16 watt power range and to prove the design is intrinsically lower cost than other high efficiency alternatives.These designs will be further optimized and prepared for commercial production during Phase II of the project.Commercial Application and Other Benefits: Commercialization and adoption of Q-Sync enabled commercial refrigeration motors would significantly increase the transition rates of end users to higher efficiency advanced cooling solutions. The Q-Sync high efficiency motors provide the best economic value for industrial, commercial, Government and residential use. These advantages would also have significant indirect environmental benefits by reducing electricity usage and meaningful national security benefits as well by reducing national dependence on foreign energy sources.