When the motor of the only double axial fan broke down, the entire air condi­tioning system for the check-in area of the Birm­ingham Airport shut down.

Around 13 million passen­gers fly from Birm­ingham Airport to one of 150 direct global desti­na­tions every year, plus a further 340 one-stop long-haul routes, with 50 airlines. Normally, they check-in, eat, shop or simply wait for their flight in pleas­antly fresh air. But in February 2017, the motor of the only double axial fan broke down. The result: the entire air condi­tioning system for the check-in area of the seventh largest airport in Great Britain shut down. Airport manage­ment needed help quickly and contacted service provider and air treat­ment experts Munters, who in turn looked to ebm-papst UK for support.

Failure impos­sible with FanGrid

The FanGrid solu­tion with five EC RadiPac fans prevents whole system failure. In addi­tion, it saves consid­er­able amounts of energy.

“Instead of replacing the fan, which would be a very diffi­cult task due to its size, we recom­mended a new FanGrid design with five EC RadiPac fans,” said Kurt Bruns, a project engi­neer at ebm-papst UK. This solu­tion not only saves consid­er­able amounts of energy, but prevents whole system failure. “If one fan were to fail, the remaining four can increase their speed,” he explained. “They can compen­sate for the loss and continue to deliver the air volume required.” Due to their compact size, the units in a FanGrid can be replaced more easily. In addi­tion, EC FanGrid solu­tions can be controlled more accu­rately, are quieter and reduce main­te­nance costs.

Consumes 58 percent less energy

These argu­ments convinced airport manage­ment. Munters installed the new system only two weeks after submit­ting the proposal. “The retrofit has reduced Birm­ingham Airport’s energy consump­tion by 58 percent,” said Bruns. Going from a power consump­tion of 24 kW to 6.4 kW saves the airport over €12,000 per year.