The crude oil price has more than doubled over the last few years and the cost of electricity is steadily growing in all countries. Furthermore, developing countries are increasingly becoming more industrialized and their energy needs are soaring.
The filters are the most inexpensive part to improve
It is well known that the cost to ventilate a building is significant. The “typical” energy cost of filters as a percentage of the total system is approximately 30%. Selecting the correct filter (I.E: Camfil Farr MERV 13) filter efficiency and lowest pressure drop, can create significant savings on energy while maintaining healthy Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)
Life Cycle Cost (LCC)
From a long term perspective, it is evident that the energy consumption is the major overall cost of a filter.
70 % of the cost is energy!
Calculations reveal that energy normally accounts for 70 % of the total LCC of the system. The energy consumption is directly proportional to the average pressure drop over the life of the filter.
Choosing the right filter saves energy
Camfil Farr has been a pioneer in designing low average pressure drop filters in all filter efficienccies for the last 40 years. Many people assume that the filter efficiency is the largest contributor to initial pressure drop, however, it is the actual design of the filter that has the main impact!
Beware of Camfil Farr imitations
A competitor's filter with the same number of pockets will not necessarily have the same average pressure during its lifetime. In case of bag filters our unique tapered stitch allows full utilization of the media resulting in extended life and low energy cost. Having established that Camfil Farr has the lowest average pressure drop, you should then select a filter to achieve the desired IAQ level for your application. Always check for the minimum efficiency as reported in ASHRAE Standard 52.2.
Energy saving filters
Camfil Farr has developed software to determine precise LCC cost for a particular filter, in any given system, with its unique conditions and requirements. The program can be adjusted according to the characteristics of your outdoor air and your specific cost for filters, labour, disposal cleaning and energy.
Calculation example
In the first example we have selected a MERV 13 filter in a typical installation, in an industrial city. The filter is running 4000 hours during one year with airflow of 0.94 m3/s. We look at the installation over 1 year period in order to take into consideration the total cost of the system.
In the second example we replaced the first filter with another filter of the same filter efficiency (MERV 13). While the filter has the same size and similar material, the manufacturer’s less favourable design results in a 20 Pa higher pressure drop over the clean filter. As a consequence the energy consumption is affected. The total cost increased by 23 Euro per year – per filter!
Recommendations from Camfil Farr
Key products
Prefilters