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December 8, 2025
September 8, 2022
By now you know the various costs involved in the air compressors and the possible opportunities to lower your compressed air cost with our previous two blogs.
- What does no one tell you about the life cycle cost of compressors?
- What part of compressed air cost can be converted into earnings?
However, the big question is how to assess whether these opportunities are present in the manufacturing plant? Is the available opportunity big or marginal? Is it affecting plant productivity and the cost of end product?
Let's explore the answers in this blog.
Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.
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The first step for improvement in any field is to know where we are currently and what is our goal. The difference between current status and desired goal set-up the path of improvement.
Likewise, it is important to know what are the losses in your plant, how much they are costing you, and how much can save by fixing the losses.
This process will help you to identify the potential opportunities to reduce the energy and power losses in the plant and thus you may earn more. One of the best ways to identify opportunities is to conduct a scientific study of your compressed air system.
This study when conducted responsibly can help you to know
- The energy inefficiencies in your compressed air system.
- The potential improvements in the compressed air systems to achieve energy savings.
This audit can either be conducted in-house or under the guidance of the expert energy auditors or partners. The audit is recommended for companies to identify cost-effective energy efficiency opportunities. Further, the compressed air audit is important for companies seeking to implement an energy management system while working towards achieving ISO50001.
As we have highlighted earlier, air compressors typically consume between 10-12% of a factory’s electricity, and sometimes up to 30%. Hence, the potential for realizing energy savings by conducting a compressed air energy audit should not be overlooked.
How does a compressed air power audit work?
This audit could be conducted visually as well as with a data logger device, without any disruption to your production. The visual audit exercise is intended to flag-up ‘quick-win’ opportunities to fix costly air leaks and address inefficient operating practices. Few such practices are continuous running of compressors during periods of low demand like evenings/ weekends and therefore, heavy power loss in Idling and blow-off with under-utilization of a costly asset.
The other type of audit is conducted with a data-logger device by measuring real-time current consumption of the air compressor by certain assumptions and parameters.
The results of this study give you an opportunity to explore more efficient options before making a capital purchase. This audit will also help you to achieve your power savings goals and carbon footprint reduction, thus reducing the environmental impact of its operations.
This power audit will not disrupt your facility’s operations but rather is performed while the equipment is running. After setting up, the data logger device is left to operate for a one-week period and has three major steps.
Step 1: Real-time current measurement (ii-Trak measurement)
To investigate the potential savings in your compressed air plant, the first step is to perform a data-logging exercise by measuring real-time current consumption. This activity needs hardware installation which usually takes less than 30 minutes and a measurement period of 1 week.
Step 2: Simulation and assessment
A sample size of 1 week provides a fair assessment of the air usage in the plant which can be then extrapolated for the year to calculate potential savings. Based on the logged data and the sample, the simulation is done with the two assumptions:
- The sample is a fair depiction for a yearly consumption.
- Power cost remains constant throughout the year.
Step 3: Report and recommendations
A detailed report will be generated with the current scenarios, conclusions, and recommendations that help you to take appropriate actions/decisions from the simulated data.
These actions implemented out of this study can also help in subscription to PAT scheme and ISO 50001 compliance.
Monitoring Your Compressor’s Efficiency With AIRchitect
Summary
The real-time current measurement study will help you to optimize your compressed air usage by avoiding power losses & increasing efficiency & uptime. The decisions backed by a scientific- fact-based approach will always save from various risks and potential energy losses and thus, help in lowering the energy consumptions. This whole activity helps you navigate your ship of earnings without any disruptions. Did you know, we have conducted more than 1000 power audits in 2019 and help many customers in their mission to earn more through energy savings by data-driven scientific decisions. For your personalized report, you may Whatsapp us @ +91 77680 80901 or fill the form below. Our team will revert shortly.
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