Central vacuum

[cheesewonton]

For a well installed system, I don't think the ideal power of the power unit corresponds very well to home size, for the vast majority of homes at least. There losses in pipes in the walls should be relatively small compared to the hose and cleaning head/attachments.



That's interesting. I wonder if you would get more cleaning-relevant performance from having the two motors in series instead of in parallel.

My question is, do you really have more cleaning power at the end of a 30 something foot long central vacuum hose after it has gone through another 50-100 feet of pipe in your walls than you have at the end of the hose from a good canister vacuum? Are all those motors, tubing, wiring, extra power consumption and money getting you more cleaning power at the end of the hose?

 

[Hatsuwr]

My question is, do you really have more cleaning power at the end of a 30 something foot long central vacuum hose after it has gone through another 50-100 feet of pipe in your walls than you have at the end of the hose from a good canister vacuum? Are all those motors, tubing, wiring, extra power consumption and money getting you more cleaning power at the end of the hose?

Personally, my favorite thing about central vacuums is that you can vent the exhaust air outside, but regarding performance, yes, you will be getting more cleaning power at the end of the hose in most situations.

Usually when using a vacuum, you will be creating a restriction around the area being cleaned to increase the air speed at the area being cleaned. This restriction means you will have a much lower airflow rate than just an open hose end. Because of this lower airflow rate, the pressure losses in the pipes and hose will be decreased.

These losses are more significant at higher airflow rates. Sometimes I use my central vacuum for fume extraction when soldering — that's about the worst case for a central vacuum, but I'd guess that even then it would beat (or at least be competitive with) most canister style vacuums. Plus, with the canisters you need to take into account power loss from voltage drop in the power cable. This loss will be greater with more powerful motors and during higher loads, but you could be looking at a 10%+ loss in power from this.