2 Minute Guide to EC Technology

EC technology can provide significant energy savings when compared to traditional AC products and is increasingly becoming the go-to solution for those in the air movement industry. Within this blog we will look into what the term EC actually means and why this technology is so important for the HVAC industry.

What is EC technology?

Here’s a quick reminder – The term EC refers to all motors that have their coils energised by means of electronic switching (electronically commutated). EC motors consist of a static motor winding over an iron core (stator), with a rotating permanent magnet (rotor). The rotor part can either be internal to the motor (similar to a standard AC motor), or external rotor type.

How does EC technology work?

EC motors configured for AC mains supply (230Vac), convert the AC voltage internally into a DC voltage (325Vdc typically), so effectively act as a 325Vdc motor but with a conversion front-end to allow the motor to be connected to a mains supply. All EC motor types have the potential to have the required drive electronics located locally to the motor, or remotely – for example mounted on a customers’ control panel or located elsewhere within the product.

What are the advantages of EC technology?

The main advantages of EC technology is high efficiency (when compared to traditional AC products), variable speed control allowing the motor to only be used at the required working point and intelligent electronic which allow for varied control functions such as constant volume. There is also the added advantage that the motor can be connected directly to a mains supply without the requirement for a separate DC power supply.

Where can I find EC related products?

Torin-Sifan offer a wide range of products online and produces two types of EC motors.

EC single phase (EC1) – These motors are characterised by increased torque pulses as the magnets line up with the stator poles and typically require additional anti-vibration mounting to damp out the higher levels of vibration. We produce 3 basic motor sizes in this type: “36”, “46” and “76” sizes, refers to the relative stator diameter in millimetres.

EC three phase (EC3) – These motors use 3 motor winding phases and have a dissimilar amount of stator poles to magnet poles (6 stator poles and 4 magnet poles). This type of motor uses a technique called Field Oriented Control or Vector Control whereby the windings are all partially energised, but vectored to provide a rotating magnetic field. This provides a very smooth mode of operation and does not usually require any additional anti-vibration mounting. Typically EC motors need a magnetic sensor determine the position of the rotor relative to the stator, this type of motor is able to be operated without a magnetic sensor making it a fully “sensorless” type of design. We offer two motor power platforms in this type of design: EC3-90W (90 Watts power max), and more recently EC3-170W (170 Watts power max).