Over the past week, my amazing wife and I traveled to Asheville, NC for a long weekend away. This is our second year going down, and I can most certainly say that we will be going back. Our days consisted of going to a small mom-and-pop type diner for breakfast, loading the cooler with water, and then picking a hike to hit up. This time we hiked mostly in the Pisgah National Forest and while we did not hit the same elevation as last year, we still managed to double the first hike of the week on the second day and felt great once we reached the end. I also chose to make the hikes hard on myself by carrying my trusted GO-RUCK GR1 to carry our water, first aid kit, and a 30 lb. steel plate, because you should always choose the harder thing.
While we weren’t at elevations like Pikes Peak in Colorado, we still felt the difference in the air between being in Cincinnati and being in the mountains. Maybe it was just the fact it was cleaner. When we crested a hill on the trail and stopped to take a quick break, we looked around and realized that after all the switchbacks we had just gone through, we looked over the valley we had just climbed out of and were at the tree tops of the valley and still nowhere near the top of the mountain. This got me to thinking about how I was working harder because I had a steel plate, walking too many lunches where I just sit for 30 minutes instead of walking and that is immediately connected to the ACFM calculations for an air compressor and just how a compressor will have to work harder to produce the same volume of air when elevated because the air is thinner. This is going to change the air density, which results in a lower atmospheric pressure due to higher altitude.
Altitude is just one of the factors that matters in the calculation to determine a compressor’s output at different locations. The other factors include relative humidity, which was way better in the mountains than here in Cincinnati, and the actual temperature, again better in Asheville than Cincinnati.
If you are wondering about the equations I am referencing, we’ve blogged about them many times and even have a Webinar that touches on the math and reasoning behind these different values. Check the equation below and the links above.
In case you were wondering, the post-Ruck/Hike hydration is always better after events, it also always helps to have a good partner in crime to enjoy all the experiences with you. Thankful for the ability to connect all these hobbies and my knowledge of compressed air on top of sharing it with others. If you want to discuss how to calculate some ACFM or SCFM consumption and outputs of your compressor or application, or if you want to talk about rucking, hiking, or any of your favorite trails, give me a call, chat, or tweet.
Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF
1 – Steve Martin & Edie Brickell – “When You Get To Asheville” – CBS, Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RzhTN9zW3w