Compressed air is one of the largest consumers of energy. It’s time to think about costs with energy prices not looking to decrease anytime soon. Your compressor becomes no.1 suspect for the big bill landing on your desk at the end of each month!
An obvious suggestion is to turn off your compressor when it is not in use. But what do you do when you run a three-shift system in a 24/7 production facility?
Read our 5 tips to reduce the running costs of your compressed system without altering schedules. Let’s make the fourth utility more affordable.
1. Reduce the pressure
In many systems the pressure is set to a higher level than actually needed. This uses more energy to compress the air to reach the needless high pressure. The result is large volumes of wasted compressed air. For every extra 2 psi, energy costs increase by 1% – which soon adds up!
If you’re increasing the pressure to operate many end uses, can you use a separate compressor? This allows the system to operate at a reduced pressure, decreasing energy consumption.
2. Fix air leaks
If the compressed air system is more than 12 months old, it will have some leaks. The leaks could be in the pipework, fittings or the point of use equipment. Even a small leak, one that is too small to hear with the naked ear, will be wasting energy and costing you money.
On average a small compressed air system will have between 10 and 30 separate leaks.
To fix a leak, you need to identify it. Ultrasonic testers listen to air leaks, allowing you to repair any significant leaks. Begin the pay-back period of the test – don’t let leaks go unfixed!
3. Track air usage
You can’t put in place cost saving initiatives until you know what’s happening in your system. Investing in equipment to measure pressure, volume flow and leaks has cost-savings benefits.
- Highlights savings potential
- Reduce the escape of expensive compressed air
- Assign costs to individual production processes
- Prevent possible breakdowns by alerting you to any changes
Want the final 2 tips? Read them over on our blog: https://www.directair.co.uk/news/5-tips-to-lower-compressed-air-costs/