{"id":12191,"date":"2017-09-18T11:10:09","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T09:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/?p=12191"},"modified":"2025-11-13T09:42:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T08:42:39","slug":"fans-by-ebmpapst-helping-to-change-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/industries\/heating\/fans-by-ebmpapst-helping-to-change-the-world_12191\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans helping to change the world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Tracking down sound sources<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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A lot has happened in fan tech\u00adnology. Never\u00adthe\u00adless, there is still scope for further opti\u00admiza\u00adtion in noise cancelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read the article <\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Anton van den Broek had the idea for the little helpers seven years ago. \u201cMany people in my neigh\u00adbor\u00adhood live in old, very poorly insu\u00adlated houses,\u201d he says. \u201cThey don\u2019t have much money, but they have to pay a lot for energy. I wanted to help them lower those costs by reducing their energy consump\u00adtion.\u201d His idea was a radi\u00adator fan comprising three fans and mounted under the radi\u00adator to quickly and uniformly distribute the heat. But at first his idea couldn\u2019t be imple\u00admented due to a lack of funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over lunch two and a half years ago, he told his coworker Pieter van der Ploeg about his idea. Van der Ploeg is managing director of \u201cGO!\u201d, a company that boosts the energy effi\u00adciency of apart\u00adment build\u00adings. Van der Ploeg was convinced right away. \u201cI decided to take up the idea and imple\u00adment it,\u201d he says. He went to work with the engi\u00adneers Arnold Halbertsma and Henk de Groot and devel\u00adoped the Speed\u00adcom\u00adfort radi\u00adator fan. The three got together every Tuesday after\u00adnoon to work on the product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Envi\u00adron\u00admen\u00adtally friendly Euro\u00adpean produc\u00adtion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For the heart of the appli\u00adca\u00adtion, the three fans, they imme\u00addi\u00adately chose ebm-papst. The two engi\u00adneers had worked for a long time in the venti\u00adlation sector and knew the fan specialist well. And the start-up wanted envi\u00adron\u00admen\u00adtally friendly, Euro\u00adpean produc\u00adtion.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Pieter van der Ploeg presenting the award for the greenest idea of the Nether\u00adlands (Photo | Marcel Bonte)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The product they chose was a DC axial fan. \u201cTo cool a room, you need a lot of air flow. But if you only want to circu\u00adlate the air better, you don\u2019t want to feel any wind,\u201d explains van der Ploeg. To keep the speed as low as possible, ebm-papst in St. Georgen redesigned the winding. And the team installed the fans for the appli\u00adca\u00adtion, which are normally used for LED cooling, in a rectan\u00adgular housing instead of a round one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every\u00adthing went very quickly. Van der Ploeg and the two engi\u00adneers began plan\u00adning in the spring of 2015. Imple\u00admen\u00adta\u00adtion with ebm-papst began in July, and in November the proto\u00adtype of the Speed\u00adcom\u00adfort radi\u00adator fan had already won the prize for Holland\u2019s greenest idea. That put the company under pres\u00adsure. \u201cWe began sales in the web shop in December, two months earlier than planned,\u201d says van der Ploeg. \u201cThat was tough, but it was also a sign that the market had been waiting for a product like this.\u201d Series produc\u00adtion began in January 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simple instal\u00adla\u00adtion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A key to the product\u2019s success is certainly its simple instal\u00adla\u00adtion. Anyone can click it into place under a radi\u00adator using four magnets and then plug it in. The device has a built-in temper\u00ada\u00adture sensor and starts running as soon as the radi\u00adator reaches a temper\u00ada\u00adture of 35 degrees. Then the three fans assist the flow of warm air and circu\u00adlate it uniformly throughout the room. It can barely be heard and makes the room more comfort\u00adable. The Speedcomfort\u2019s oper\u00adating cost is only 16 cents per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That\u2019s how Speed\u00adCom\u00adfort works:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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