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Varivac, developed by Corkill Systems Ltd in Taranaki, is the first software driven vacuum pump control system to be built in New Zealand. Varivac has won awards at National Fieldays as well as the National ECANZ Award for energy savings and innovation.
Varivac controls all kinds of vacuum pumps - single or twin motor. It increases vacuum reserve by up to 20% and reduces noise in the process.
Savings with Varivac
Here are a couple of examples of the savings that typical farms, including Meridian Energy's own dairy farms in North Otago, can experience with Varivac. The cost of electricity (in KWh) between day and night rates since installation, for the purposes of these examples, has been estimated at an average of 16 cents.
Farm 1: 60 bail Waikato Rotary milking 750 cows.
Vacuum pump: Boumatic Airstar blower model MP5 belt-driven by a 15 kw motor, installed 1999.
Running information from the Varivac provided the following:
- power consumption before Varivac: 15 kilowatts x 5969* hours x 0.16 cents = $14,325.60
- power consumption with Varivac: 4.75 kilowatts x 5969* hours x 0.16 cents = $4, 536.16
- total power saving = $9,789.16
Farm 2: 44 bail Nu Pulse Rotary milking 440 cows.
Vacuum pump: Two Masport Supers, belt-driven by a single 11 kw motor, installed 2000.
- power consumption before Varivac: 11 kilowatts x 4217.9* hours x 0.16 cents = $7423.50
- power consumption after Varivac: 4.62 kilowatts x 4217.9* hours x 0.16 cents = $3117.87
- total power saving = $4305.63
*Total recorded running time of vacuum pump. Savings are indicative only and Meridian Energy gives no representation or warranty of their accuracy.
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