Dometic IBEX 2011, BVFD & WhisperFan
Winter will not be slow on Panbo largely because I still have lots to cover from my summer cruising and fall travels, and more time to do it in. At IBEX, for instance, I learned about a couple of neat ways that Dometic is using sophisticated modern electronic controls to make existing marine appliances work better. And I even got a little (goofy) face time in a video about the Bypassable Variable Frequency Drive (select HD at your own risk)...
If you watch the video you may be as impressed as I was that Dometic has a Director of Technology as articulate as Matteo Giovanetti. The BVFD (product page here) is not that easy to understand, starting with the fact that it's a fix of a fix. Apparently lots of large yachts already have Variable Frequency Drives to tame the wicked startup power demands of large air conditioning compressors -- like the 5 to 25 horsepower variety -- but the VFDs can cause all sorts of RFI problems on the boat and even around a marina as they change AC power to DC and back again. The Bypassable VFD, as further illustrated in this video with Flash animations, manages to take the VFD completely out of the circuit once it's completed its ramping up duties. And hence it can be used with more than one large compressor system, if you have a yacht that big...
While the BVFD seems to be high-end big-boat technology, I'm pleased to know that serious power loads can be handled so precisely with silicon and software. Boats of many sizes would benefit from improvements in power efficiency and noise -- both the audible and interference kinds -- and maybe some of the wow in the BVFD could help eventually.
Meanwhile Dometic also introduced the WhisperFan Controller, which uses
"pulse width modulation to make any AC-driven fan as quiet as a DC-driven fanpulse width modulation to make any AC-driven fan as quiet as a DC-driven fan." It should also increase the life of the fan and it can be used to calibrate low/med/high settings to speeds that actually mean something once the air has wound itself through a specific amount of ducting. Apparently WhisperFan is compatible with most 208-240VAC/50-60Hz Cruisair and Marine Air cabin controls now, with a model for 115VAC/60Hz blower motors coming soon. This time my friend Ed Sherman got to do the IBEX video with the good Mr. Giovanetti.
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Great insights on these 2 new Dometic products. By the way, the Bypassable VFD was honored with a nomination for a 2011 DAME design award at the Marine Equipment Trade Show (METS) in Amsterdam. http://www.metstrade.com/nl/en/Pages/dame.aspx