Avoid Air Leaks
If you are not in a position to make a major investment right now, you might be thinking that you therefore won’t be able to save energy.
Fortunately, that’s not true.
There are plenty of ways in which you can reduce your energy consumption without spending a lot of money.
One of the most important of them is to detect air leaks and patch them up.
This is something that any compressed air user can and should do, and there are plenty of leak detection methods that cost nothing at all.
But before we get to those let’s first look at the scope of the problem. After all, how much can a leak cost you?
Actually, a lot.
Most compressed air users are not aware of how much money they waste because of tiny (or not so tiny) holes in their compressed air system, but it very quickly adds up. In fact, on average, they lose 20% of their energy to leaks.
Earlier, you learned that energy makes up about 80% of the total cost of ownership of a compressor. Therefore, if you were able to operate with no leaks, you would be able to reduce a compressor’s total cost of ownership by 15% over its service life.
That’s a lot of money. Even a tiny leak can cost hundreds or even thousands of euros or dollars.
The first step you should take to make sure that doesn’t happen is to install a reliable piping system. However, even with the best system, leaks can spring up at some point, and the sooner you identify them, the more money you save.
So, how do you detect them?
It starts with doing very simple things. For example, at the beginning of every shift, you can make it part of your team’s routine to just walk along all of your pipes and listen for hissing sounds.
Another inexpensive way of detecting leaks is to use soapy water to cover the spots where you think air might be escaping. If bubbles form, you need to take action.
Of course, there are also a lot more sophisticated methods of finding these tiny profit killers.
For example, modern compressor controllers can help identify leaks. In addition, you can also perform a leak detection scan, which might be the most effective method of them all.
Contact an expert
