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SUSTAINABILITY IN MANUFACTURING


SUPPLEMENT HOW CAN EFFICIENCY


CONTRIBUTE TO CO2 REDUCTION?


by Marco van der Linden – UK country manager – PULS Power


power supplies can increase efficiency and avoid wasting energy. This contributes to the protection of our environment. In our new article, you will find out how PULS power supplies can help to reduce


I


CO2 emissions and why this also leads to financial advantages for companies.


CAN A POWER SUPPLY CONTRIBUTE TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION? Successful protection of our environment starts small. In the industrial environment, modern power supplies can increase efficiency and avoid wasting energy. Especially in larger applications – such as Logistics centres – where many power supplies are running 24 hours a day, there is a large potential for savings. Power supplies convert AC voltage provided by the mains into the DC voltage required by computer systems and machines. During this process, a certain amount of energy is always lost in the form of heat. These losses are wasted energy and cannot be avoided entirely. But, they can be reduced to a minimum. For this reason, power supply developers try to keep the power losses as low as possible by developing efficient power supply designs.


ENERGY SAVINGS THROUGH HIGH EFFICIENCY An important indicator is the quoted efficiency: The higher the efficiency of a power supply, the lower the power losses and thus the wasted energy. PULS achieves efficiency values of more than 95% with its DIN rail power supplies. The meaning of this value becomes clear with


a calculation example. If the efficiency is 95.2% (e.g., CP10.241), we see power losses of 4.8%. For a power supply with 240W output power,


the power losses between input and output would be 12.1W. This loss is emitted in the form of heat. It is a fact that every percent is really


substantial when it comes to efficiency. If we reduce the efficiency in our example to 91% it becomes clear. 4.2% less doesn’t sound like much, but the resulting losses would be almost twice as high at 23.7W. If you apply this example to the total number of power supplies in an application and take into


ncreasing energy efficiency is a crucial factor in the fight against climate change. In the industrial environment, modern


account the additional power required to provide cooling for the system, this has a significant impact on the CO2 balance.


POWER SUPPLIES CAN REDUCE


YOUR CO2 COSTS SUSTAINABLY The German Umweltbundesamt


(Environment Agency) calculates the


real CO2 damage costs on a yearly basis. Based on 2021, one ton of CO2 causes environmental damage of €201. Let’s continue the calculation example from above. Suppose 100


power supplies with an efficiency of 91%


run 21 hours a day and 300 days a year. This operation takes place over 10 years. It results in wasted energy of 149,310 kWh. Now the CO2 emission factor must be taken


into account. This factor describes the ratio of the mass of an emitted substance to the unit of energy produced. For the year 2020, the German Federal


Environment Agency calculated, as part of a study, that the generation of one kilowatt hour of electricity causes 366 grams of carbon dioxide. The wasted energy of the 100 power supplies with 91% efficiency – from our example –


result in 54.6t CO2. If we multiply that with the emission factor, we end up with CO2 costs of €10,975. We assume that the CO2 damage costs will remain stable over the next 10 years – realistically, they will continue to rise. If we calculate the same example with the PULS power supplies, whose efficiency


is 4.2% higher (95.2%), the CO2 emissions are already reduced to 27.9t. The costs therefore drop to €5,608. In essence, the higher the efficiency and the longer the service lifetime, the


lower the CO2 costs. Therefore, being ecological and sustainable will pay off financially for companies. With our efficient products, we have been helping our customers to achieve their own environmental goals for decades. As early as 2004, Bernhard Erdl, managing director, chief developer and owner of PULS Power, explained in an interview: “The best contribution to active


FEBRUARY 2023 DESIGN SOLUTIONS - SUPPLEMENT 43


environmental and climate protection is to avoid unnecessary energy consumption and to use resources responsibly. It is always


cheaper to invest in CO2 avoidance than to repair the damage later on. This development is in line with the corporate philosophy that I have always followed at PULS.” PULS is also continuously promoting this philosophy in its own company in order to


further reduce its own CO2 footprint. An example is the environmentally friendly burn-in test procedure at our production sites in the Czech Republic and China. This test helps us to identify and weed out defective devices before delivery. It is one piece of the puzzle used to guarantee the high quality and reliability of our products. The devices are operated with nominal load at an ambient temperature of 60˚C. Special heating cabinets are required to generate these high temperatures. Both the preheating of the cabinets and the operation of the power supplies require a lot of energy. PULS has therefore developed an innovative system of energy recuperation. This enables us to reuse more than 92% of the energy required for the test operation of the power supplies. This example clearly shows how technical


innovation and the responsibility for our planet go hand in hand at PULS. Environmental protection has always been


an integral part of the PULS strategy. For more information on PULS High Efficiency DIN-Rail power supplies, please contact us.


PULS T: 01525 841001 sales@puls.co.uk www.pulspower.com


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