Heard the term variable-speed blower motor and wondered what it was and why it was beneficial to you? There is much you should know about the benefits of having a variable-speed blower motor over a regular single-speed blower motor.
Variable-Speed Blower Motor
This term refers to the fan or blower motor in the furnace or air handler. It runs at pre-determined speeds, but there is a difference in how it gets to that pre-selected speed and how it slows, or stops.
Motor Varieties
There are two varieties of your basic blower motor. One is a PSC, or permanent split capacitor type motor. The other is an ECM, or electronically commutated motor. The ECM motor uses less energy while costing more. The PSC costs less but uses more energy.
Benefits
The benefits of a variable-speed blower motor is as simple as efficiency, air quality, and noise level. It is efficient in that it uses less energy than a single speed air system. It can give you a gain of 1 SEER, or seasonal energy efficiency ratio. The higher the SEER of a unit, the lower the energy consumption is for the unit. Air quality is better because the fan is allowed to run all the time. Whenever air is allowed to circulate around the house and come back into the unit via the filter, more pollutants and particles will be caught by the filter. It is quieter because there is none of the sudden blast of air that a single speed motor blower has when it starts to work.
Those looking for a higher degree of efficiency at a lower energy cost may want to consider a variable speed system.