commutator. It operates from AC or DC power supplies.
The concept of concentrated (tooth coil) winding in BLDC
Universal motor operates at high speed and high starting torque
as compared to induction motor. The typical requirement of
mixer-grinder application is met with universal motor. This
motor has the drawback of limited life span due to brushes and
commutator, and also has poor efficiency, electromagnetic
interference and sparking due to the mechanical commutation.
However, this will be an inexpensive way to develop a motor
with very high speed.
III. MERITS OF BLDC MOTORS IN HOME APPLIANCES
A. BLDC arrangement
BLDC Motor arrangement comprises of a rotor with
permanent magnets and a 3 phase stator winding. In BLDC
motors, magnets are placed either on the surface of the rotor
which are called as surface mounted permanent magnet (SPM)
or buried inside the rotor iron , called as interior permanent
magnet motor (IPM). The selection of a suitable configuration
is based on the speed and performance requirement of the
application. This motor is controlled by an electronic
controller. It is also called as electronic commutated motor
(ECM).
Based on the control feedback information it is classified
into sensor controller and sensor less controller. Sensor based
controller needs a hall sensor or encoder to provide the rotor
position information, whereas the sensor less controller
predicts the rotor position from voltage and current signal with
the help of a special rotor position sensing algorithm and a high
speed digital controller. Sensor based BLDC controller is easy
to implement but it needs positional inputs for hall sensors
from the rotor of the BLDC Motor. This involves additional
effort to implement hall sensor placement inside the motor.
Whereas sensor less BLDC controller only needs a robust rotor
position algorithm and has the advantage of simple motor
manufacturing process.
Use of sensor and sensor less mode of controller has to be
decided based on the application needs. In compressor
application, sensor less mode is preferred due to the difficulty
in hall sensor placement inside the compressor and its
associated additional wire connections. In high start up load
application such as washing machines, sensor based BLDC can
be implemented. In Fan applications both sensor and sensor
less have trade-off between them regarding the application
construction.
B. Efficiency
The necessary magnetic field for energy conversion process
is available in BLDC motor without any additional excitation.
This reduces the components for main field generation and
their associated losses. The recent advances in the magnetic
material such us neodymium ferro-boron (NdFeB), samarium
cobalt (SmCo) and high energy ferrite magnet helps to achieve
high efficiencies with the reduced size and weight compared to
any other motor types due to their better BH properties.
Further, the addition of low iron loss silicon steel, soft
magnetic composite material and amorphous material helps to
realize a high efficient design with different possible
combinations of BLDC such as axial and radial flux machines.
motor aids to achieve a low copper loss because of its less
overhang compared to its distributed winding counterpart. It
also has the advantage of easy manufacturability. The
efficiency curve is almost flat, so the part load efficiency of
BLDC motor is better than the induction motor. Hence it is
more suitable for variable speed operation compared to the
induction motor. The latest development in the electronic
switches and micro controllers enables to achieve a high
efficiency in the controller, as well as to implement a complex
algorithm.
C. Variable speed
The speed control is very much required on any appliance
for having a better user comfort and energy efficient operation
[4]. Since the BLDC motor comes with an electronic controller
it would be possible to control the speed. The same could be
achieved with an induction motor too but it requires an
additional motor control. However, the motor efficiency of the
current induction motor is lesser than the BLDC motor and
thus the overall system efficiency to be less as well. Variable
speed operation plays a major role in achieving a better star
rating with competitive cost. The slow start features of the
BLDC motor helps to reduce the inrush current during the
motor starting. With the field weakening control it would be
possible to run the motor beyond the rated speed of the motor.
But high speed operation is realized with a mechanical gear
arrangement in case of an induction motor.
D. Additional features
Additional benefits in using a BLDC motors are a) the set
speed is maintained despite a dip in input voltage ; b) smart
algorithm adopted within the existing electronics controller
without need of external controller which can enhance the
appliances in a smarter way.
IV. HOME APPLIANCES PERFORMANCE WITH BLDC MOTOR
A. Refrigerator compressor motor
In recent days energy star rating is mandatory for frost free
and direct cool refrigerator [5] [6]. The number of stars is more
for a less energy consumption refrigerator. A refrigerator runs
24 hours a day. The motor used in the compressor should
consume less power for achieving higher star rating. However,
the efficiency of current induction motor is almost saturated
and further improvement is difficult with the available space
and cost constraint. Hence it is required to go with a high
efficiency BLDC motor with variable speed control for
achieving the higher star rating.
For a capacity of 180 litre to 330 litre, the typical power
requirement will be in the order of 60W ~ 120W. The speed
and torque of the compressor is 3000rpm and 0.25Nm. Two
retrofitted BLDC motors, one, rated 48V DC, 2A for a solar
based application and the other, rated 300V DC, 0.3A for a 230
V AC (single phase grid connection) are developed. A sensor
less controller is developed to run these motors. It would be
possible to run the motor from 1800 rpm to 4500 rpm based on
the thermal load demand. Refrigerator controller receives
temperature information from the temperature sensor and runs