Sound levels and ROI don’t immediately link together in a quick thought. Unless you are me and things seem to link up that don’t always go together, like peanut butter and a cheese burger. (Trust me, just try it, or if you are near West Lafayette, Indiana just go try the Purvis Burger across the street from Purdue University.) The truth behind tying sound levels being reduced and ROI together is actually pretty simple.

For this example, I am going to stay fairly high level as we could get into some pretty deep measurements of what exactly could be a cost savings.  If we reduce the sound level being generated by point of use compressed air products that is easiest to do by implementing engineered blow off products as well as reducing the operating pressure. Let’s use this example: A 1/4″ copper tube that is being used as a blow off will give off a noise level of over 100 dBA from 3′ away.  The table below shows that at an 80 psig inlet pressure the same tube will also consume 33 SCFM of compressed air.

By installing a model 1100 1/4″ FNPT Super Air Nozzle on the end of this copper tube, we  reduce the noise level generated by the blow off to 74 dBA. This measurement is at the same 80 psig inlet pressure and from 3′ away, which is well below the OSHA standard for allowable noise level exposure.  This also gives a broader more defined pattern to the air stream which may permit a reduction in compressed air pressure.

The other factor this changes is that the air consumption is reduced by 19 SCFM of compressed air which then results in energy savings.  This ultimately ends in a simple ROI equation where we are simply using the compressed air reduction as the only variable for the return.

By reducing the air consumption of a process that operates 24/7, 250 days a year that equates to  a savings of 6,840,000 SCFM per year and that equates to $1,710.00 USD. This does not account for any reduction in paying for hearing protection that may no longer be needed, or increase in production because the application functions better.

So you see, reducing noise levels in a facility can easily amount to a sizable cost savings in energy going towards compressed air consumption.  If you would like to walk through any potential applications, please contact us. 

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF