He is a Formula 500 race car driver and mechanic competing with the Sports Car Club of America.  The above photo shows the awards for the team’s 1^st place finishes at VIR in 2012 and 2015.  Jay is proud to say he drove during both of those wins which was made possible by the excellent crew work. The VRM team, made up of Jay – IRTC’s Director of Training, lead instructor, and engineer, his dad, John – a retired nuclear power operator, and two-stroke extraordinaire, Rob – a nuclear power project manager, built the VRM Sidewinder and  perform all mechanical work. They race at road courses such as Summit Point, Virginia International Raceway, Watkins Glen, and Sebring

 Jay raced a few weeks ago in the SARRC 1 and 2 at Virginia International Raceway.  Jay summarized the race by stating, “the wheel to wheel racing was excellent with two other Formula 500’s drivers who had recently placed in the top 10 at the National Runoffs at Daytona.  The VRM team put in some hard work in prepping the car between qualifying rounds and races with superb handling during the races.”

The team is currently getting ready for an off-season overhaul to prepare for the 2016 season.  They have high hopes for the upcoming year. 

IRTC will be attending the 2015 RETA National Conference September 29th - October 2nd in Milwaukee, WI.  Visit them at booth # 344!

IRTC will be attending the 2015 IIAR Conference & Exhibition in San Diego, CA March 22-25, 2015.  Come visit us at Booth #319.

Throughout much of the year, cold storage warehouses and some production facilities operate with partial refrigeration capacity.  Reasons for this may include cooler temperatures than the hottest summer days, doors remaining closed due to lower product movement, or varying product cooling/freezing requirements.  Variable frequency drives (VFDs) on screw compressors, condenser fans, and evaporator fans can provide considerable energy savings by slowing motor speed when only a portion of the full refrigeration capacity is needed.  In addition to using less energy, VFDs can provide smoother starting and operating control.
 

Screw Compressors

A screw compressor typically lowers its capacity with a slide valve.  The slide valve reduces compressor capacity without reducing energy consumption as much.  For instance when a slide valve unloads to 50% refrigeration capacity, the compressor may still be requiring 65% energy.  By slowing the motor with a VFD to 50% refrigeration capacity, the energy needed would be closer to 50% which can result in significant savings as compressors use the most energy in a refrigeration system.
 

Evaporative Condensers

Evaporative condensers are typically controlled by cycling fans on and off.  Due to the characteristics of fans, VFDs reduce energy consumption greatly when slowing the fans.  For instance an evaporative condenser with two 10 horsepower fans would cycle off one fan when needing half of the airflow, therefore using 10 horsepower.  Under the same conditions with VFDs, both fans would run at half speed but realistically use about 1.5 horsepower each or only 3 horsepower total.
 

Evaporators

A similar energy reduction occurs when slowing evaporator fans or air unit fans when the cooling needed is less than the design refrigeration capacity.  Additionally, because fans add heat energy into refrigerated rooms, less energy used is less heat energy added to the room resulting in less refrigeration needed throughout the system.  If fans aren’t already being cycled off when cooling isn’t needed, even more significant energy savings would be seen.  Many times, the VFD investment to energy cost payback is quickest with evaporator fans.

Jay Voissem, P.E., CIRO
Industrial Refrigeration Technical College