Abstract
Many companies offer gearboxes, shafts, and couplings for cooling tower fan drives, with little or no innovation. These companies have traditionally been purchased with an emphasis on cost and not "Return on Investment!" In the past, when energy conservation or "Return on Investment" was emphasized, the only alternative was to add an expensive frequency inverter for variable speed control. This meant expensive rewiring, placing additional controls in an already crowded control room, or constructing a special building for them. However, with H.E.M.'s patented Hydraulic Fan Drive, one receives variable speed control and more efficiency for approximately the price of a mechanical drive. The new, more efficient Hydraulic Drive allows for a variable speed control and the ability to sense water temperature to control fan speed.
Dickerson, J. (1991). Cooling Tower Energy Conservation Through Hydraulic Fan Drives. Energy Systems Laboratory. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /148986.