Usage of electricity is getting increasingly more demanding in the age of technology, which means energy efficiency is becoming more important. Bus duct specialists are showing why this established technology is gaining greater attention for high-power applications.
“When the ampere rating gets bigger and bigger, you need several sets of cables, which not only takes up space but costs a lot,” said Daniel Wang, Key Account Manager, Link Busway Systems. “With bus ducts, the voltage drop is minimal, so more people are opting for bus ducts instead of cables when looking at higher ampere ratings.”
While particularly relevant to power-intensive facilities such as data centres, bus ducts can also be used across hospitals, airports, hotels, shopping malls and commercial buildings, both indoors and outdoors.
The biggest hurdle remains the upfront cost. Unlike conventional cabling, bus ducts must be engineered for the application, prefabricated and then installed. Bryan Lau, Chief Executive Officer, Power Plug Busduct, however, said the longer-term equation can tell a different story.
“For bus ducts, they have to be designed by engineers depending on your needs and prefabricated then delivered and installed, which makes the initial cost higher, but when it comes to future expansion, bus ducts are better because they provide flexibilities that you can expand anytime.
“So you just buy the extension from us, and you can connect back to the existing routings, but for cables remove everything and reroute again and it’s also almost zero maintenance compared to cables so in the long run it’s actually more cost effective,” he said.