Over the ten-year life of a compressor, the cost of energy to run the system far outweighs the capital investment.
Do you know the true cost of your compressed air?
Compressed air is an essential energy resource in today's highly automated industrial production. We may not always see it, but compressed air is all around us. Approximately 70% of all companies use compressed air for some aspect of their operations, with around 10% of all the industrial electricity consumed in Europe used to generate air. For some manufacturing facilities, the cost of compressed air generation accounts for over 30% of all their electricity consumed. Which is why we focus on helping to reduce our customers’ energy consumption, especially for the purposes of making maintenance or investment decisions.
The cost of compressed air is usually taken as only the electrical cost
To calculate the cost of compressed air based on electrical cost alone, use the following formula:
Compressor KW Rating x Annual Hours of Operation x Unit Cost of Electricity = COST
Generating compressed air as an energy source is expensive, and with sky high electricity costs, why would you not use it as efficiently as possible. With the simple formula above, you can roughly calculate how much you are paying – as well as how much you could be saving. Whether you use this information to make informed decisions about investing in a new high-performing, energy-efficient compressor and system overhaul – or simply to find the small changes and cost savings is up to you. But we’re happy to help you and in most cases this is free.
The small changes that can make a big difference
Often small changes can be made to your compressed air system to bring energy costs down. Making consumption more efficient and recovering what normally would have been wasted, can provide significant cost-savings.
- Regular air leak surveys: Leakage is the predominant cause of unnecessary energy waste
- General optimisation audit: Reviewing piping infrastructure, operating hours and comprehensive system overview
- Compressed air energy reclamation: Identifying energy saving possibilities in the form of waste energy recovery
Let Cambs Compressors help you with a more accurate measure
The cost of running a compressor, and not evaluating the whole system, will only give you a partial view on the possible cost savings. To get a more accurate measure of the exact cost of your compressed air running costs will take some time and effort. As a guide, the more variables you include the more time you will spend and the more expensive compressed air will appear to be. Cambs Compressors are experts in compressed air efficiency and have helped clients large and small identify small changes which have delivered substantial savings – as well as new compressed air solutions which deliver pay-back in months not years.
