Motors consume about 2.2 trillion kilowatt hours of electricity in the U.S. alone each year, more than half of all electricity used.

They’re largely out of sight, but motors surround us, lurking inside refrigerators and washing machines, kitchen blenders and coffee grinders, toys, treadmills, disk drives, printers and ventilation systems.

And when you add them all up and imagine boosting their efficiency by just 10 percent, you pretty quickly find you’re making a nice dent in both electricity bills and power-plant emissions. Factor in industrial motors, and that dent turns into something more like a chasm.

Consider the following:

• A motor may boast 90 percent efficiency, but that’s only in optimal conditions. TI is demonstrating technology that enables maximizing efficiency across speed ranges and load conditions. That includes algorithms that bring a motor up to speed as efficiently as possible.
• Variable-speed motors are particularly efficient – provided they’re doing the right thing at the right time. TI technology’s ability to provide cost-effective, high-precision feedback enables precise motor control that helps variable-speed motors reach their full potential.
• TI’s advanced motor control algorithms and motor drive technology eliminate the need for mechanical position sensors. That not only reduces motor-manufacturing costs but also increases performance, efficiency and reliability.
• Increased motor efficiency extends battery life in cordless products such as toys, where a remote-control racecar with meager battery life is likely to end up gathering dust on a shelf. And TI enables a cordless power drill to produce better torque response without any additional energy expenditure.

TI is also helping manufacturers’ increase their products’ Energy Star rating, and word of TI’s motor-control technology is starting to spread.