The Cost of Doing Nothing

Do you know the cost of doing nothing?

Do you have a compressed air system ageing 10 years plus?

Do you use bottled or bulk nitrogen?

You have an opportunity to save and reduce your expenses.

a few examples below...

Compressed Air: (New unit)

A system (that won't be named) that uses their compressor for one shift (2808 hours) at 15 cents per kW was spending about $11,900 annually for electricity. The unit keeps up with demand and no new equipment will be installed soon. The unit has had some minor issues but nothing of great concern. A newer unit would 1- reduce annual costs to $9,700 and 2- gives them more air thanks to the improved design. That is for the same technology. If this particular case had a fluctuating air demand, a variable speed compressor may be more suitable and further reduce annual costs.

Compressed Air (Adjustment to an existing system)

A system has three compressors, a 50 hp fixed as the lead machine, a 50 vsd as the kicker and a 30 hp fixed sat as a backup. Their air use showed the 50 hp had far more capacity than they typically needed. There were only 2 occasions throughout the week when that much air was needed. A simple control change allowed the 30 hp to run to meet the typical demand and had the 50 vsd kick on when the plant needed the extra air. The 50 hp fixed became their backup (until they grew..but that's another story). This little case shows why reviewing your control is important as the demand in your plant changes. It doesn't always require a new compressor. Sometimes a control review is what's really needed.

Think about the costs to run a 50 hp versus a 30 hp. Needless to save there were significant savings by adjusting their control.

*When working with multiple compressors, consider flow-based algorithm, target algorithm, cascade algorithm and ask your service provider if a central controller is right for you.

Nitrogen (change from bottles to generator)

There are SIGNIFICANT savings and benefits for making the switch to an on-site generator. Talk to us for specific examples in your industry and come on a field trip with me to see it live and speak to our satisfied customers who made the change.

For more information or to see what we can do to increase system efficiency or reduce expenses, contact us.

[email protected] (365) 999-5445

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency. Examples of analyses performed within this article are only examples. They should not be utilized in real-world analytic products as they are based only on very limited and dated open source information.