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SESK: Stuff Everyone Should Know · sesk.info/eng-motors-manufacturing-electricity

In EIA's 2010 US manufacturing survey, machine drives used about what share of delivered electricity?

About half.

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  1. About 5 percent
  2. About half ✔
  3. Nearly all

Why: Motors spin pumps, fans, compressors and conveyors in nearly every factory. That makes motor efficiency one of the biggest levers for saving industrial energy.

Huh, didn't know that: In that survey, electricity powered about 89 percent of motors in manufacturing.

The dad joke
Factories run on two things: coffee and electric motors. Only one shows up on the power bill.
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References

Answer: About half. Motors spin pumps, fans, compressors and conveyors in nearly every factory. That makes motor efficiency one of the biggest levers for saving industrial energy.

  1. US EIA, Today in Energy: Electric motors in manufacturing www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=13431
    Machine drives, which are primarily electric motors, pumps, and fans, account for about half of the manufacturing sector's delivered electricity use.
    Checked 2026-10-10.

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