Andreas Binder:<\/strong> At the time, there was an increasing focus on climate protec\u00adtion and saving energy. If we take a look at an air cooler, the fan is the compo\u00adnent where we can mini\u00admize power consump\u00adtion.<\/p>\n Wolf\u00adgang Krenn (left), CEO of Roller, has been with the company since 1997. He was respon\u00adsible for sales when the company switched to EC tech\u00adnology. Andreas Binder (right), Product Manager at Roller, has worked at the company since 2008. He was involved in the tran\u00adsi\u00adtion for ten years in his role as devel\u00adop\u00adment engi\u00adneer. (Photo | Christoph Kalscheuer)<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n Krenn:<\/strong> They were initially very skep\u00adtical. They were worried that there would be elec\u00adtronics in the cold store\u200a\u2014\u200awhere it is cold and damp and pres\u00adsure washers are some\u00adtimes used! The EC motor was also more expen\u00adsive.<\/p>\n Krenn:<\/strong> I can still clearly remember my first visit to a customer. I had an evap\u00ado\u00adrator built with a new EC motor and a Q motor (which had been in use to that point) which also displayed the power consump\u00adtion. I loaded it into my trunk and drove to our whole\u00adsalers. They could imme\u00addi\u00adately see that the Q motor was using 80 watts and the EC motor just 27.<\/p>\n And the real high\u00adlight is that users save twice over! The EC motor uses less power, which means it also emits less heat that the refrig\u00ader\u00adating plant has to convey out of the cold store. This really impressed me\u200a\u2014\u200atwice the benefit, twice the saving. This and the resulting quick payback period are what also won over the skep\u00adtical customers.<\/p>\n Krenn:<\/strong> Yes, that is true. At the begin\u00adning, we even assumed a part of the extra cost to reduce the barrier for our customers and to launch the tech\u00adnology on the market. Over time, some\u00adthing inter\u00adesting happened on the market. Various oper\u00ada\u00adtors, for example of large super\u00admarket chains real\u00adized that they could save on oper\u00adating costs with EC fans. They then explic\u00aditly requested them in their calls for tenders. Those who could already offer EC tech\u00adnology had a clear edge over the compe\u00adti\u00adtion. This led to a knock-on effect on the market and, as a result, the extra cost became less of a factor.<\/p>\n Krenn:<\/strong> Inno\u00adva\u00adtions often have a diffi\u00adcult time in the refrig\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion industry. This is because energy effi\u00adciency is not as signif\u00adi\u00adcant in certain appli\u00adca\u00adtions. However, I feel there is another impor\u00adtant advan\u00adtage to EC tech\u00adnology: the excel\u00adlent control char\u00adac\u00adter\u00adis\u00adtics of the motors. This is a huge advan\u00adtage when it comes to sensi\u00adtive chilled goods or appli\u00adca\u00adtions with fluc\u00adtu\u00adating loads.<\/p>\n Binder:<\/strong> You should also bear in mind that the fans can easily be controlled to run at other speeds, giving customers a great deal of flex\u00adi\u00adbility in how they are used. Which means we do not have to stock as many fan types, as we can use them in appli\u00adca\u00adtions where different speeds are required.<\/p>\n In 2012, Roller switched to EC tech\u00adnology in three evap\u00ado\u00adrator series. Now, almost all their devices use the energy-effi\u00adcient and contin\u00adu\u00adously adjustable tech\u00adnology. Roller is constantly improving the overall effi\u00adciency of its devices. EC tech\u00adnology is an impor\u00adtant compo\u00adnent in this. (Photo | Christoph Kalscheuer)<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n Binder:<\/strong> Our customers natu\u00adrally expect the product that they are buying to meet all the direc\u00adtives. But, to be perfectly honest, because we changed over to EC tech\u00adnology so early, the ErP did not concern us at all. We were on the safe side before the direc\u00adtive intro\u00adduced more strin\u00adgent require\u00adments.<\/p>\n Binder:<\/strong> When I joined the company, we had one EC fan in use. In 2012 we converted three evap\u00ado\u00adrator series, and then other devices were grad\u00adu\u00adally switched over. Now, approx\u00adi\u00admately 95 percent of our prod\u00aducts have EC motors.<\/p>\n Krenn:<\/strong> Servicing is also always a major factor for us. Our EC appli\u00adca\u00adtion for air coolers is designed as follows: if an AC or Q motor fails, the EC motor can be swapped in like-for-like quickly and easily. This meant that we were also able to change over our supplies of replace\u00adment parts completely, and only stock EC motors. We were all impressed with the EC tech\u00adnology. You would be hard pushed to find anyone full of more convic\u00adtion than us. For me, EC is state of the art\u200a\u2014\u200ait is as simple as that. This is also why we essen\u00adtially no longer install any other tech\u00adnology. The super\u00admarket oper\u00ada\u00adtors and plant manu\u00adfac\u00adturers would no longer have it any other way.<\/p>\n Binder:<\/strong> Other markets are more sensi\u00adtive when it comes to price, which is why it is often diffi\u00adcult to intro\u00adduce EC there. But South\u00adeast Asia has seen a lot of devel\u00adop\u00adment in this area. At the moment, for example, we have a project with a large super\u00admarket chain in Thai\u00adland which is installing EC tech\u00adnology as stan\u00addard.<\/p>\n Krenn:<\/strong> In this Thai project\u200a\u2014\u200aand this was the first time I have seen this in the region\u200a\u2014\u200anot only was EC spec\u00adi\u00adfied in the call for tenders, but the permitted power consump\u00adtion was also limited. Our customer is a pioneer there because they have seen how much they can save. But it will defi\u00adnitely take some time before this way of thinking spreads throughout the market in Thai\u00adland.\u2002<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What moti\u00advated you to switch to EC tech\u00adnology ten years ago? Wolf\u00adgang Krenn: As a company, what drives us is improving the overall effi\u00adciency of refrig\u00ader\u00adating plants\u200a\u2014\u200awhether this involves the geom\u00adetry of the pipes, conduc\u00adtivity, or opti\u00admizing the de-icing process. For us, EC tech\u00adnology is another compo\u00adnent of this over\u00adar\u00adching philos\u00adophy. The deci\u00adsion to switch [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fans","category-refrigeration-ventilation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15385"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15452,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15385\/revisions\/15452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/ebmpapst-7237.kxcdn.com\/en\/files\/2021\/09\/Roller-Kren-Binder-EC-Technologie-ebm-papst-660x419.jpg\")
How did your customers react to EC?<\/h3>\n
How did you win over the skep\u00adtics?<\/h3>\n
But your customers, and by that I mean the whole\u00adsalers, do not gain any advan\u00adtage from this saving!<\/h3>\n
And what about other cooling appli\u00adca\u00adtions?<\/h3>\n
What was the role of the Ecode\u00adsign Direc\u00adtive in this devel\u00adop\u00adment?<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/ebmpapst-7237.kxcdn.com\/en\/files\/2021\/09\/Roller-Effizienz-AC-EC-ebm-papst-450x600.jpg\")
How has the switch to EC continued in your company?<\/h3>\n
How is EC tech\u00adnology received in the different regions?<\/h3>\n