Tag: $$$

Calculating Compressed Air Cost & Savings Made Easy

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

If you have ever looked through our catalog, website, blog, twitter feeds, or even our Facebook page, you will see that we can almost always put a dollar amount behind the amount of compressed air you saved by installing EXAIR’s Intelligent Compressed Air Products.   No matter which platform we use to deliver the message, we use the same value for the cost of compressed air which is $.25 per 1,000 Standard Cubic Feet of compressed air. This value is derived from average commercial and industrial energy costs nationwide, if you are on either coast this value may increase slightly. On the positive side, if your cost for compressed air is a bit more, installing an EXAIR product will increase your savings.

So where does this number come from?   I can tell you this much, we didn’t let the marketing department or anyone in Accounting make it up.   This is a number that the Engineering department has deemed feasible and is accurate.

To calculate the amount we first look to what the cost per kilowatt hour is you pay for energy.  Then we will need to know what the compressor shaft horsepower  of the compressor is, plus the run time percentage, the percentage at full-load, and the motor efficiency.

If you don’t have all of these values, no worries.   We can get fairly close by using the industry accepted standard mentioned above, or use some other general standards if all you know is the cost of your electricity.

The way to calculate the cost of compressed air is not an intense mathematical equation like you might think.  The best part is, you don’t even have to worry about doing any of the math shown below because you can contact us and we can work through it for you.

If you prefer to have us compare your current compressed air blow off or application method to one of our engineered products, we can do that AND provide you a report which includes side by side performance comparisons (volume of flow, noise, force) and dollar savings. This refers to our free Efficiency Lab service.

EXAIR's Efficiency Lab is a free service to all US customers.
EXAIR’s Efficiency Lab is a free service to all US customers.

If you already know how much air you are using, you can use the Air Savings Calculators (USD or Euro) within our website’s knowledge base. Just plug in the numbers (EXAIR product data is found on our website or just contact us) and receive air savings per minute, hour, day and year. We also present a simple ROI payback time in days.

Now, back to the math behind our calculation.
Cost ($) =
(bhp) x (0.746) x (#of operating hours) x ($/kWh) x (% time) x ( % full load bhp)
——————————————————————————————————————————
Motor Efficiency

Where:
bhp — Compressor shaft horsepower (generally higher than motor nameplate Hp)
0.746 – conversion between hp and KW
Percent Time — percentage of time running at this operating level
Percent full-load bhp — bhp as percentage of full load bhp at this operating level
Motor Efficiency — motor efficiency at this operating level

For an average facility here in the Midwest $0.25/1,000 SCF of compressed air is accurate.   If you would like to attempt the calculation and or share with us your findings, please reach out to us.   If you need help, we are happy to assist.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer Manager
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

 

Compressed Air Can Be Costly – EXAIR Can Help You Save It

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Growing up across the street from an old fashioned service station does have its perks.   This was one of the old 76  gas stations that still had a garage where a mechanic would fix your car, as well as you could get gas if you needed to.   They even had the rubber hose that would ring a bell when you drive over it.  One of the other things this station had was a compressed air hose that ran to the outside of the building and offered free compressed air to any passer by so they could fill up their tires as needed.   Normally it just had a very simple tire chuck on the end that would connect to the Schrader valve on your car tire.  This station is still there, they no longer sell gas, and they have also removed the bell ringing air hose that runs outside.  If you need a tire filled now, you have to either catch them during normal business hours or move on to the next gas station and hope they have some form of compressed air available.

The full service gas stations for the most part have been replaced by gas stations with convenience stores attached.   They carry more junk food than they do products for your car and they have no need to own or operate an air compressor.   Their customers still have that need though so there are now small stand alone compressed air stations.   These range from small shoebox sized units that you pay a few quarters for, up to the unit I noticed today while filling up my car.

Standalone air compressed for tire inflation.
Standalone air compressed for tire inflation.

This unit takes credit cards, regulates the compressed air to the user selected pressure, and all you have to do is hook it to your cars valve stem.  This is far from free, and the reason is, compressed air is a costly utility.  If you don’t believe us when we repeatedly talk about how much money you can save on compressed air by installing our engineered compressed air nozzles, Super Air Amplifiers or Super Air Knives (among others), then accept a challenge from me.  Contact an EXAIR Application Engineer to discuss any point of use compressed air applications that you have in your facility.   While you are waiting to get the in stock, shipped same day, Intelligent Compressed Air Products® received, monitor your compressed air use and the energy use on your compressor.  Install the EXAIR products once you receive them and continue to monitor your air and energy consumption.   If you don’t see a decrease within these two areas, call me and return the items.   We honor a 30 day guarantee on stock products just so you can make sure you are saving air, and getting the best performance out of your compressed air system.

Brian Farno
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF