Evaporator Fan VFD Market Barriers
The Initiative was focused to address five market barriers that were identified in the proposal including:
- Research had not been conducted on the effects of the lower air movement associated with evaporator fan VFDs on apple quality in long-term controlled atmosphere storage.
- Some facility owners and contractors erroneously or prematurely perceived that lower air movement would result in unacceptable temperature differences with refrigerated warehouses.
- Facility owners were concerned about a modest risk of motor burnout or harmonics problems with VFDs.
- Facility owners lacked information to evaluate the return on investment.
- With only a small number of facilities using evaporator fan VFDs, conservative owners and operators were reluctant to take a chance on an unfamiliar technology.
