Since air compressors use a lot of electricity to make compressed air, it is important to use the compressed air as efficiently as possible. EXAIR has six simple steps to optimize your compressed air system. Following these steps will help you to cut electrical costs, reduce overhead, and improve your bottom line.

Step 1 – Measure the air consumption to find sources that use a lot of compressed air.  Information is important to diagnose wasteful and problematic areas within your compressed air system. To measure air consumption, flow meters can be used to find the volume or mass of compressed air per unit of time. Flow rates are very useful data points to find problems like leaks, over-use in blow-offs, waste calculations, and comparison analysis.

Step 2 – Find and Fix the Leaks.  One of the largest problems affecting compressed air systems is leaks.  That quiet little hissing sound from the pipe lines is costing your company a lot of money.  A study was conducted by a university to determine the percentage of air leaks in a typical manufacturing plant.  In a poorly maintained system, they found on average that 30% of the compressor capacity is lost through air leaks.  For a 100 hp compressor, you are losing 30 hp into the ambient air.  To put a dollar value on it, a leak that you cannot physically hear can cost you as much as $130/year.  That is just from one inaudible leak in hundreds of feet of compressed air lines.  EXAIR offers an Ultrasonic Leak Detector to find those inaudible leaks to fix.

Step 3 – Upgrade your blow-off devices with engineered products.  Here is a simple example.  A 1/4″ copper tube blow off can consume as much as 33 SCFM (934 SLPM) when supplied with compressed air at 80psig (5.5 bar).  It’ll give you a loud, strong blow off.  If you replace that copper tube with an engineered nozzle, a Model 1100 Super Air Nozzle, you can reduce that flow to just 14 SCFM (396 SLPM) at 80 PSIG (5.5 bar).  If you’re tracking your compressed air usage, you’ll see that replacing just one of them saves you 45,600 Standard Cubic Feet worth of compressed in one 5 day (8 hour a day) work week.  At $0.25 per 1,000 cubic feet of compressed air, that’s a savings of $11.40 per week.  Also, the noise level will be dropped to 74 dBA to make it comfortable when working nearby. 

Step 4 – Turn off your compressed air when not in use.  This step can be done using two simple methods, either by using manual controls such as ball valves or automated controllers such as solenoid valves.  Manual controls are designed for long use and when switching on and off are infrequent. Ball Valves are one of the most commonly used manual shut-offs for compressed air and other fluids.  The solenoid valves can be used for quicker shut-offs.  With the cost of compressed air, every bit counts.  If there are gaps in your operation, they can be triggered with different types of methods.  EXAIR does offer an Electronic Flow Control that has an optical eye and timing sequences to trigger solenoid valves to blow compressed air only when it is required. 

Step 5 – Install Secondary Receiver Tanks.  Compressed air receiver tanks are an integral part of many compressed air distribution systems. Compressed air is stored at a high pressure after drying and filtration. A secondary receiver tank is located on the floor for pneumatic equipment or systems. Think of a receiver tank as a “capacitor”.  It stores the energy within a system to be used in periods of peak demand, helping to maintain a stable compressed air pressure in your system. This improves the overall performance of the compressed air system and helps to prevent pressure swings.  Rather than having to pull from the compressor, a secondary receiver tank can be sized to provide the short-term volume of air for a particular application.

Step 6 – Control the Air Pressure.  People tend to overuse their compressed air for many blow-off applications.  This can create excessive waste, overwork your air compressor, and rob other pneumatic areas.  With Pressure Regulators, they give you control to set the operating pressure.  By simply turning down the air pressure, less compressed air is used.  As an example, a model 1100 Super Air Nozzle uses 14 SCFM (396 SLPM) of compressed air at 80 PSIG (5.5 bar).  If you only need 50 PSIG (3.4 bar) to satisfy the blow-off requirement, then the air flow for the model 1100 drops to 9.5 SCFM (269 SLPM).  You are now able to add that difference of 4.5 SCFM (127 SLPM) back into the compressed air system. If we use the average rate of $0.25/1000 cubic feet to make compressed air, this would be a savings of $135.00/year with an 8-hour shift.  And, if you have many similar blow-off devices, you can see how this can really add up.

It is important to review and monitor your compressed air system.  You can cut your energy consumption, improve efficiency, and save yourself money.  The six steps above will help to diagnose the overall “health” of your compressed air system. EXAIR does carry some of these products to help you measure and analyze.  You may have questions about the Six Steps to Optimize Your Compressed Air System, and an Application Engineer at EXAIR will be happy to help. 

John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb