On Wednesday 11th March, we hosted our Compressed Air Best Practice Event, as a gold member of Made in the Midlands. We selected the Coventry Transport Museum as our venue because it’s home to the largest publicly owned collection of British vehicles in the world (and we thought the best in Midlands manufacturing and engineering would like to check this out). Being a proud Coventry based company, we thought it was a great place to welcome visitors to the centre of our city. Not just any city either, the winner of the UK City of Culture for 2021!
The event focused on energy efficiency & reducing business carbon footprint within compressed air.
We kickstarted the event at 9am, by offering breakfast whilst attendees arrived. The Direct Air team greeted a whole range of visitors including our own customers, suppliers, fellow Made in the Midlands members, and other business owners/representatives interested in the nature of our event.
By 10am, we finished up our breakfast networking so everyone could get seated in the main room. Each attendee introduced themselves to the group with a 60 second elevator pitch and our presentation began.
After explaining a little bit about Direct Air - our history, accreditations, what we do and who we deal with – we thought it would be useful to give a brief explanation of what compressed air is. And we accompanied this with a live demonstration from the Direct Air team using some homemade props - keeping it as simple as possible!
Then came the all-important question, ‘How much does compressed air cost your business?’
Answer: it all depends upon the efficiency of your system, as leakages in the pipework can take up to 35% of the total air consumption. One of the many ways your money can vanish into thin air – literally!
We discussed the importance of energy audits, to assess all areas of your compressed air system and find the best solution for you. We consider misuse of compressed air, shift patterns and cost of electricity on-site.
Next, we talked savings! An example highlighted that by upgrading to more efficient compressed air equipment and having weekend shutdowns, savings within the region of £27,000 per year we achieved.
But the savings don’t stop there! Another customer’s compressed air savings were £37,000 per annum… from leak detection and repairs alone!
Pressure control and system design are 2 more massive saving opportunities as well as heat recovery. 10% of industrial electricity is accounted for by compressed air systems. It is a thermodynamic fact, that around 94% of this is then lost as heat energy.
This heat energy can power other components from your heating to hot water. An example demonstrated that by converting heat energy to generate hot water, totalled £28,536 of energy costs savings per annum. Alongside 149.243 CO2 emissions being avoided in the process!
So, it’s not ‘just a compressor’ after all…
The presentation came to a close at 11am. This allowed for further networking, with the Direct Air team on hand to answer any questions raised from the presentation. 12pm then marked the end of the event, followed by a free simulator ride and nosey around the museum!