The first and most obvious way to save money on your compressed air energy bills is to make sure your air compressor is working correctly and efficiently, ie operating as it was designed to operate. This is best achieved by making sure it is correctly serviced and maintained this is best achieved by doing the following:-

• – Make sure you are carrying out your daily checks
• – Get your air compressor engineer to service the compressor, dryers and filters.

 

Daily checks.

Carrying out your daily checks are critical to keeping your compressed air system operating efficiently. This should be done by someone within your company and what was found in the daily check should be recorded in a log, so issues spotted can be checked at later checks.

The daily checks include:

• – Check the compressor is running normally (is running as expected, isn’t making any odd noises)
• – Check oil levels
• – Drain excess condensate out of receivers, filters and dryers
• – Check for air leaks or liquid leaks coming from the compressor / dryer / filters / hoses
• – Check the plant room where the compressor is housed is cool and has adequate ventilation

 

If anything isn’t as you thing it should be give us a call to talk through the problem, we can often fix the issue or reassure you over the phone or we can send out an engineer for a deeper look at the issue. If you aren’t sure how to do a daily check contact us and we can get one of our engineers out to take you through the process.

 

Servicing

The importance of servicing can’t be overstated. During a service our engineers check over the compressor to make sure everything is working as it should be. We change the necessary items to keep the compressor operating at its optimum this will include

 

Whats included in a compressor service?

• – Changing the lubricant and lubricant filters
• – Changing wearing parts (such as internal valves) as dictated by the manufacturers
• – Changing air intake filters (a blocked air filter will cause pressure losses resulting in higher energy usage).
• – Adjusting belts or other items in the compressor
• – Checking the cooler and fan is operating correctly

 

Whats included in servicing of the downstream equipment?

Of equal importance to the compressor is keeping downstream equipment operating correctly. If a downstream filter is blocked, energy is wasted getting the air past a blocked filter.

• – Check the dryer is operating correctly, check the radiators are clean and free of dust, change any necessary filters as required.
• – Check and replace downstream filters
• – Check the drain valves are operating correctly on the receiver.

 

FAQ’s

Qu: Why will a blocked air filter cause the compressor to use more energy?

A blocked air filter either in the compressor or downstream in the dryer or pipework means there will be a higher than normal pressure drop across the filter. To keep the compressed air system at the correct pressure the compressor will have to work harder, using more energy.

 

Qu: Why will a receiver with water / condensate in it effect the energy the compressor uses?

The air receiver is a critical piece of equipment in your compressed air system. The receiver is designed to act as a storage tank allowing the compressor to run more consistently rather than turning on and off rapidly. The receiver allows the compressor to run longer when it is starting up as it builds pressure in the receiver, and to stay turned off for longer when the system is using air from the receiver. Compressors hate turning on and off rapidly, in fact they are designed to make sure this cant happen, but this fix does result in higher energy usage. A receiver half full of water is effectively half the size of the same receiver with no water in it (water is incompressible) making the receiver effectiveness half what it should be.