Applications
PECO Powersaver suits facilities with long operating hours, mixed three-phase loads and central low-voltage distribution. It does not suit every installation, and the sections below say where.
The Common Factors
The equipment performs best where these conditions hold together.
- Long operating hours. Savings accumulate in kWh over time. A facility running 18–24 hours a day accumulates more than one running eight.
- Motor-driven plant, much of it inverter-driven. Compressors, pumps, fans and chillers. This is where our strongest measured results have come from.
- Mixed load composition. Motor plant, resistive loads and lighting together, rather than a single dominant load type.
- Measurable phase imbalance. Common in buildings where single-phase circuits have been added over the years.
- Central low-voltage distribution. A single main supply point downstream of which one unit can serve the whole system.
Primary Application
Hotels & Resorts
Why hotels in particular
A hotel is close to the ideal load profile for this equipment, and not only because it runs continuously.
Plant load is mixed and constant: chillers, air handling, pumps, refrigeration, commercial kitchens, laundry, water heating, lifts and back-of-house lighting. Chillers and large pumps in modern hotels are usually inverter-driven — the load type from which our strongest measured results have come. And guest room circuits added over successive refurbishments are a common source of phase imbalance.
Hotels also hold assets for long periods, which suits equipment with a three-year transformer warranty, no consumable parts and no software.
What hotel engineering teams ask
| Will guests notice anything? | No. Output remains within the supply voltage range permitted by EN 50160 and IEC 60038. Lighting, air conditioning and hot water operate normally. |
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| How long is the shutdown? | A planned outage of the main distribution is required. Duration depends on cable and busbar work at the site and is estimated during technical review, then scheduled with your team — typically during a low-occupancy period. |
| Does it connect to our BMS? | It does not need to. The system operates independently of building management and metering systems. Remote status contacts are available as an option. |
| What about chillers with variable-speed drives? | Load composition is reviewed before any proposal. Where tightly regulated constant-power loads dominate, we say so rather than proceed. |
| What if it does not suit us after installation? | The By-pass path restores the original supply arrangement exactly, at any time. |
| Who maintains it? | Your own team. Visual inspection, keeping ventilation clear, checking bolted joints and verifying voltages, at intervals set by your maintenance policy. |
| How do we show the owner it worked? | Accumulated kWh at the billing meter, under an agreed comparison protocol. Reports are written to be checked by your own engineers. |
| How much space is needed? | From 600 × 700 mm footprint at 100 kVA. Front and rear clearance is required for door access and ventilation. |
Over more than ten years of hotel installations — where acoustic requirements are among the strictest of any facility type — no noise-related issue has been reported.
Experience
PECO Powersaver has been supplied to international hotel and resort groups in the United Arab Emirates, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Italy and South America.
Customer names, site locations and project results are confidential and are shared only under a non-disclosure agreement during technical review.
Strongest Measured Results
Industrial Facilities
Where the results have been strongest
Aluminium forging plant and facilities driven by large inverter-controlled motors have produced our strongest measured results. Compressors, process pumps and fans in the hundreds of kilowatts, running continuous or multi-shift operation, accumulate savings faster than any other load type we have measured.
As inverter drives become standard on large motors, this is an increasing share of industrial load — and of commercial load too.
- Air compressors
- Large inverter-driven motors
- Process pumps and fans
- Forging and metal processing
- Ventilation and dust extraction
- Process heating
- Plant lighting
Why we do not explain it further here
We could offer a theory. We would rather offer a measurement.
What we know is what the meter recorded, at the sites where we recorded it. Whether the same holds at your facility is established the same way — accumulated kWh, under agreed comparison conditions, before and after installation.
What plant engineers ask
| Does it affect drive operation? | The output stays within the voltage range permitted by EN 50160 and IEC 60038 for a nominal 400 V system. Drive input requirements are reviewed before any proposal. |
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| Can it be installed without stopping production? | No. A planned outage of the main distribution is required. Duration depends on cable and busbar work at the site and is scheduled with your team — usually during a maintenance window or shutdown. |
| What if it does not suit our load? | The By-pass path restores the original supply arrangement exactly, at any time. |
| Does it need cooling or a controlled room? | Indoor installation with standard switchgear room ventilation. IP 42. No air conditioning required. |
| What maintenance does it need? | Visual inspection, keeping ventilation clear, checking bolted joints and verifying voltages. No consumable parts, no software. |
| How do we prove the saving to management? | Accumulated kWh at the billing meter, under an agreed protocol. Where the site is rectifier-heavy, a harmonic spectrum can be recorded before and after as an optional addition. |
Worth checking first
Load factor and operating pattern
Savings accumulate in kWh, so a plant running one shift with long idle periods accumulates more slowly than one running continuously. Highly intermittent operation — batch processes with long gaps, or seasonal plant — changes the assessment.
We ask for twelve months of consumption data before proposing anything.
Shopping Centres & Retail
Long trading hours, escalators and travelators running continuously, large refrigeration and HVAC plant, and lighting across common areas and tenancies. Load is high and steady through the trading day and drops sharply overnight, which makes period-matched comparison straightforward.
- HVAC and chillers
- Escalators and lifts
- Refrigeration
- Common-area lighting
- Tenant distribution panels
- Car park ventilation
Worth planning for
Where the saving appears
In a multi-tenant centre, the answer depends on where the unit sits. Installed on the landlord’s main distribution, the saving appears in common-area consumption. Installed upstream of tenant panels, part of the benefit appears on tenant accounts rather than the landlord’s.
This is a commercial question rather than a technical one, but it is worth settling before the installation rather than after. We raise it at the review stage.
Office & Commercial Buildings
HVAC and air handling, lifts, lighting, office electronics and building services. Single-phase electronic loads are dense, and phase imbalance is common where floors have been fitted out at different times.
- HVAC and air handling
- Lifts
- Lighting
- Office equipment and IT rooms
- Water pumps
- Car park ventilation
Worth checking first
Load factor after hybrid working
Office occupancy patterns have changed in many markets. A building operating at substantially reduced weekday occupancy has a lower load factor than its design assumed, and savings accumulate more slowly as a result.
This does not rule out the equipment, but it changes the assessment. We ask for twelve months of consumption data for office buildings rather than working from installed capacity.
What We Need From You
Assessment is free and comes before any proposal. To carry it out we need:
Required
- Transformer rating (kVA)
- Single-line diagram of the low-voltage distribution
- Nominal voltage and frequency
- Maximum load current
Helpful
- Twelve months of electricity consumption data
- General description of load composition
- Photograph of the electrical room and available space
- Occupancy or production volume data, if available
From this we confirm whether the equipment is suitable, what rating applies, how it would be connected, and what outage the installation would require. If it is not suitable, that is what we will tell you.
Send Your Single-Line Diagram
Technical review typically takes a few working days. We will tell you what we find, including if the answer is that PECO is not the right equipment for your facility.