 So, all right, so we're here at the best lab at the University of Illinois and our primary duty here is evaluating ag ventilation fans So this is give you a third-party unbiased resource for finding performance data And right behind me you see a fan that's mounted on our chamber Prepared for testing this allows us The two parameters are really interested in when we test fan performance is airflow our volume of air moved and Ventilating efficiency ratio, which is CFM per watt you can kind of think of the CFM per watt as Analogous to the miles per gallon on your car So it's how far do you get or how much air do you get for one unit of energy that's going in? you'll want to that's very important to consider because many times that can be Over the lifetime of a fan the amount of savings from a more efficient fan to a lesser efficient fan This the electricity savings can more than make up for say the the cost differences A cheaper less efficient fan, so you you need to you need to really consider that as one of your main parameters when you're Designing and looking at fans so Another another thing to think about we like to kind of say that fans fans are pumps they pump air instead of waters or other fluids and just like Say a water pump some some water pumps are designed to say a deep well pump that might move a small volume But at high pressure While other pumps are designed to say just transfer a large volume from say one tank to another Where it doesn't take much pressure to move it that the same thing goes for fans in the ag world you've get livestock ventilation ventilation fans that work against very low pressures Where as then on the other end of the spectrum you might have like grain drying fans which have to force air up through You know shelled corn and so it takes a lot of a lot of Energy and pressure to get through that so you you'd want a different you'd want a different fan for each of those applications So secondarily to those airflow and efficiency you want to you want to know how We're here in the the best lab at the University of Illinois in the Ag and bioengineering department we Primarily are interested in doing fan performance tests in this lab You can see behind me. This would be an example of a large summer ventilation fan The the primary characteristics when you're looking at evaluating fans are its airflow and which has measured in cubic feet per minute or CFM and then secondarily we also are interested in ventilation efficiency ratio, which is CFM per watt And you really need to take that into account because that can be a big a big issue in the cost of The total cost of your fan not just the upfront cost over the life of a fan a More efficient fan can often Save and you know cost less over its life including the electricity usage than a less expensive fan that doesn't operate so efficiently so And when we're looking at fans The the other thing you want to look at is how does it operate against different pressures? So a fan is Basically a pump a pump of air And just as we have a fluid pump would pump have different characteristics You often might have say a deep well pump that has to work against very high pressures Doesn't move a large volume, but works against high pressures and you compare that to say a transfer pump that You want to move, you know high volumes quickly from say a tank to another tank or a pond you wouldn't use the same pump because they have different characteristics and the same as with fans with a Livestock building you're going to operate at very low pressures. You want to move a lot of air Whereas another application such as grain drying fans. It's a much higher pressure Operation where you're having to force the air through the shelled corn and so you don't use the same type of fan you want to use a Propeller fan anyway one that doesn't take much electricity to move a lot of volume of air for a ventilation Whereas a grain drying It wouldn't have the capability to move it through the grain at the the characteristics that it has so So that is very important things to think about when you're when you're designing Other things that we don't basically test here in the lab, but you should consider is Maintenance of your fans, which might mean cleaning cleaning of shutters and the housing Studies have shown depending on the level of dirt Losses of flow and efficiency of 10 to 30 percent and in research projects So it's hard to see that loss when you're just looking at your eyes So, you know, that's something you need to keep in mind as far as maintaining your Facilities another thing that you'll also want to maintain is if they are belt driven fans Check for wear on that that you're not losing RPM and So you're not, you know your your fans performance would be downgraded if if you're losing after born drive belts and so forth So Yeah, that's kind of a Or do you just do it on a regular basis like a car? I mean ideally if you could have a Attackometer to measure RPM, then you could you could see that when your RPM start dropping Not everybody has attackometer. So you can Look at them and look for wear compared to You will see they'll physically be smaller and they're with once they wear down in the V V groove So that's that's something to to look at as well So Warren belt you won't be moving the air your building won't be operating as it's designed you won't be moving as much air That might mean that you can't keep the barn cool as and you're it's going to stress the animals if you're not moving enough air and during the summertime if it's Typically we're talking summer ventilation when we're talking belt drive fans. So Minimum most the minimum ventilation for winter is going to be direct drive and you know, that's not an issue in that case I just need those words if your fan belt starts to wear Right and what are the ramifications of a dirty fan so again This will cost you both airflow as in a fan running slow with a Warren belt, but it also Will decrease your efficiency because your fan is having to work just as hard or harder than if the if it were clean So Yeah, so so if you have a dirty fan This can Cut down on the airflow in other words and also the cooling Efficiency of a summer fan and in both Summer and winter fans if it's dirty it will also cut down on How efficiently your fan moves there because it will start to per unit of air you're gonna have to be putting more energy in Belt drive fans you should also you know Maintain bearings as well Typically that's the kind of thing where you it will probably know because of sounds that you're having problems with bearings so but Replacement and some of them need to be greased if they're not if they're not a Sealed bearing sometimes they're Aggressible bearing so they should be maintained on a regular basis Okay, okay in in order to make a good fan selection you need to look at Performance tests that's tested in the lab Because fans just by looking at them. You can't evaluate how well they're operating So when you design a building you will probably have a total volume of airflow that you need to move for summer and winter ventilation So by having the numbers you can you can You can know how many fans you need and that you're meeting that requirement and then You should definitely for your efficiency and looking at electric costs You should definitely evaluate the CFM per watt of the different fans you're comparing to see And and basically what your budget allow generally we recommend get the highest highest level that you Your budget will allow so So when selecting a new fan You'll want to look at performance figures measured measured from a lab To get a third party and to assure they're all tested in the same manner We have a website that that lists fan performance All that we've spoken about as far as airflow CFM per watt and you can look at a full pressure range of these fans as well And I don't know where I'm going from there, but So when evaluating performance of a fan You want to look at at fan test results from from a lab that they're all tested the same way here at our lab We have a website so that you can Uh See online what is available commercially? Look at the airflow rates CFM per watt And and get good hard test data On on results and get good hard test data on results Just say that again And get good hard test data and results Good hard test data on results. Was it on oh, yeah, it was and wasn't it. Oops. I said the wrong thing good hard test data And results Or just do that into that sense again because it just it kind of went at the end. Yeah Um Okay So you want me to start in the beginning kind of you don't have to but you could okay All right now i'm rolling We're at the best lab at the University of Illinois And we're in the fan testing Business here behind me. We have One fan on our chamber So primarily the the main Focus here is we're looking at Two parameters and that is airflow, which is measured in cubic feet per minute or cfm and then also Ventilation efficiency ratio, which is cfm per watt. You can think of cfm per watt kind of like miles per gallon on your car. So it's You know, how much do you get out for what you put in so? The the other thing you would want to consider for these two measurements is Is how does the fan operate at different pressures? Just like with a water pump or any kind of fluid pump Basically a fan is just an air pump. So Just like with a water pump. You have different characteristics. You have Say a deep well pump where you're Pumping against very high pressures to lift the water, but probably a small volume With You might compare that to say a transfer pump where you're pumping a large volume Um from one tank to another, but you don't have to lift it very high. So it doesn't take The kind of pressure to move that to move that and you're moving a large volume With a moderate amount of horsepower to do that We see the same thing with fans. Uh and in agriculture, maybe two applications that would be similar as Livestock ventilation fans such as the one behind us that works at very low pressures, but Moves a very high volume of air And compare that to a grain drying fan which Moves a moderate amount of air against a very high pressure since you're you're moving air through shelled corn and the small voids So If you tried you want to apply the right pressure capability fan to your application If you tried to use a ventilation ag ventilate a livestock building ventilation fan on grain you wouldn't move any air because it couldn't Do the pressure Grain drying fan on a livestock building it could move air But you'd probably use Almost 10 times as much power to do it. So you want to be smart in how you apply your your fans and So that's why that's why you go to test reports and look at the the hard data on How a fan performs how much does it move When a building designer designs a building they'll They'll have a fixed number that they know they need to move of air in the summertime And so when they look at these reports, then they can evaluate how many fans will we need to put in the barn and be assured that that's Yeah, those fans will operate the way they need to operate And then secondly you you do want to look at your cfm per watt because That you know has a big effect and it can Far outweigh the upfront costs of the fan Over the life of a fan, which is likely to be you know at least 10 years um, we think electricity use over all that time the more efficient fan can Typically if there is a difference in cost between Higher and lower efficiency the more efficient fan Can make up that cost typically in its lifetime. So you want to get as efficient a fan as you can To make your dollars go go the farthest so back in So When you are evaluating these numbers that we've talked about we have a tool that we've developed here at the university and a website that That the companies after they've tested their products they can release them to be published And it's ideal because you know that they've all been tested in the same manner So that you're comparing apples to apples This site will give you The airflow and cfm and then cfm per watt And you can click on the complete reports to get the full static pressures that they've been tested at as well At a very minimal static pressure you um Actually can design a fan to get quite high cfm per watt And so if you are certain that you You won't ever see these any higher static pressures. It it can be okay to have You know that that Only operates at low static pressure. The problem is There's always unforeseen unforeseen things out in the field You want you want adequate static pressure because even if your building isn't designed to operate At a very high static there there might be situations where you have a headwind coming into the fans that is maybe like all day long and it's Consistent you want to have a little A little boost, you know a little a little margin for error with your fans so that they can overcome that and not It it may still lower their airflow Somewhat but not just totally knock them down to almost nothing so That's good. Yeah, just in case we need something Thanks anytime Okay, so definitely when you're looking at the cost of a fan. That's not the only thing to consider You should consider your costs on the whole life of the fan and by that I mean Your electricity cost as well because If you look at the cfm per watt of a fan One that is a higher cfm per watt may Cost a little more up front But in one or two seasons you may have enough electricity savings to Actually make up that difference in cost of the fan and then The rest of the lifetime You could actually come out ahead by having the more expensive fan and just saving savings on electricity So you need to definitely consider Cfm per watt and how efficient the fan can operate Yeah, that was great Not really that happens all the time Okay, so do you let's see I'm thinking let's just look at the the main page first Yeah, yeah, so just get back to the So our uh ventilation fans are listed here on our website. Uh, it's best.illinois.edu um click through to get To the ventilation fans Um There are a few tabs to get there And we also have um A full listing of all the different manufacturers here so you can look up fans Um You can specify what's your farm's voltage and power Set up is So that you get the right fan tests all the different manufacturers If you have a specific dealers in your area you want to look up you can just look at say one manufacturers um different fans or you can choose by size A fan by diameter airflow if you know the range of air flows you want to look up in a fan and um By certain certain cfm per watts Or you can just go by the default and everything You do need to select which power you're in but other than that you can just default and pretty much show everything that we've tested So if you go here This is kind of just a summary the database summary page Which doesn't have a full range of static pressures. It has common static pressures that a building will operate in But depending how your building is designed it could be slightly different from this and So if you need to see a complete test report you can Click on the link here. It should pull up a pdf for the full test result One other thing i'd like to mention about this page Is we have over here what's called the airflow ratio We talked a little bit about static pressure and How a fan may perform over a range of static pressures um Some fans will hold up better as the pressure the static pressure against the fan increases So a higher airflow ratio Is ideal because that means the fan is more stable over a range of pressures But again, we can pull up. We'll look at a few A full test. This is an example of a full test report here. It just has a description So that you can be sure it's the right fan you're looking at Did you explain how you get there from the previous page? Yeah, so basically So basically just the first column This is a test number that that's For our files that you link on Um, so if you're wanting this acme model bdr 48 j2c You let you click on that link We'll pull it up Like I said a description page Just to make sure that you're looking at the right fan and then a basic test report with Static pressures from typically from zero to point three Sometimes if a fan isn't capable of the high pressure, it'll be a few less points like zero to point two five And then for each of these it'll provide air flow And and cfm and efficiency and cfm per watt Some of the large summer ventilation fans Um In the past all of the large fans have been belt driven fans. Um, in this case, this is also a belt driven fan here Um, but what we're starting to see is that with some of the new technologies that's available that rather than just Operating at a one fixed speed turning on and off That even some of the large summer ventilation fans which in the past Um had only been single speed fans now Can be operated as variable speed fans So the idea there is that You always operate the fan in in one of its most efficient operating ranges so that its cfm per watt is very high This is done with different types of Drivers coupled with motors Um, some of them at the more of the high value Operations on farms are starting to be used and I see that's suspect going forward that we'll start to see more and more of these But at this time it's typically Used on uh farms that Maybe breeding stock or more high value stock rather than just across the board, but Um, so those are some of the new kind of technologies that you might Might keep in the back of your mind and consider um At ways to Just use just the energy you need to use with the variable speed I think that's um my So to summarize the some of what you need to look for when you're evaluating fan performance Make sure that you're getting actual test data From a lab and You'll want to look at airflow And that's in cfm Uh efficiency in cfm per watt And you want to know across um How does the fan operate over static pressure? You may want to look at what's called the airflow ratio in our summary on the first page This should be as as close to one as possible Indicates a fan that holds up to higher static pressures better um When you're looking at maintenance some of the main niche issues That you'll want to do is is periodically clean your fans Which is typically going to be your guard The housing surrounding the fan And particularly important is the the Shudders or backflow dampers As these Added dirt weight will make them harder to open and cause and take extra electric electricity to open Um extra cost for the for you the end user um maintenance general maintenance you need to Of your belt drive fans make sure that the belts Are not excessively worn you can tell this by Looking at their cross section if they get too narrow um checking bearings replacing noisy bearings If the bearings are greaseable make sure they periodically are lubricating them And um those those can maintain your system so it's operating correctly um And not having to operate for excessive time if it's not moving the air that it requires Did you talk about the shutters again? So as far as cleaning you're just just a general background on it's important to clean the shutters because the weight will okay The shutters are particularly important to keep clean Because the weight of the dust Makes it harder for the the fan work harder opening The shutters which in turn means your fan will operate longer and Use more electricity to move the the needed air So that's that's one thing that's it's very important to make sure you're keeping clean And just how do people do that is just take a hose and spray him down a hose Pressure washer probably don't want to get a pressure washer if you stay back a little ways don't want to damage anything I'm just saying it How people clean these by using uh typically okay Yeah, typically these are cleaned with uh with water hose spray hose typically uh low pressure is fine, but if you pressure washer as long as you're not Um too close to the unit that should be fine as well Great, thank you Okay, so uh for maintenance on a fan some of the things you're want to look at Is cleaning this is of course a new fan in a lab So typically though where you're going to find build up is in the guard Um, that's pretty easy to clean. The other one would be the shutter and the louvers. That's pretty important because Um They open by gravity so any dirt adds weight to them and uh Also dirt in the pivot points on them make it harder for them to pivot Um, so that would be at each end of the louver. So just just wash that off um With water periodically, um the other thing you need to look for where would be its drive belt and uh typically visually once those where you can start to see they get narrower Bearings uh this one The motor is basically internal so you're not going to have to do anything with that This one has a bearing right here. It's it's a this is a sealed bearing Um, so there's nothing for you to maintain on that other than replacing If it starts to get noisy or Some fans are designed with pillow block what's called pillow block bearings that are Can be greased and maintained and in those cases if it has A place to grease them you should grease them periodically How much recommend cleaning it? um Pressure washer is fine. Although it's You probably just the motors are going to be sealed but You may want to like not directly Uh Put get too close to the motor so the pressure isn't huge on the On the motors but other than the motor pressure washer works well Okay, so the shutter Right there Go ahead with the other thing. Sorry. I just wanted to do it while I was thinking about it. Okay Okay So the the shutter is needed in summer ventilation fans because If you cycle fans on and off the fans that aren't on you don't want to draw air in from the opening that is That that that fan creates and it also will close in colder weather So that you don't pull air in through the opening But since they open by gravity and our air flow and close by gravity If they get too much dirt on them that adds a lot of weight That adds to the pressure that the fan has to work against to open it and In other words she Will likely not move air as efficiently And so you're using extra electricity when a dirty fan These are for beginning farmers and ranchers. So we keep trying to go back to the basic basic level Why does why does this even work? So this is your fan chesting chamber? Yeah, do you Run you have uh inster Devices that you take measurements with and so like the gauges Those water filled gauges above those are a pressure To the left of the computer is what we measure electricity with And that's pretty much it the the pressures we measure the air flow By measuring pressures over a known opening inside the chamber