Unveiled: 5 Tips to Enhance Your Compressor Installation Efficiency

Are you aware that compressed air is one of the most important overhead costs that industrial producers often find? The majority of the energy a plant uses can go to compressed air. Compressed air highlights the importance of proper air usage, which can save thousands of rupees annually if slight changes are made. Strategies that should be considered include eliminating leaks, conducting air audits, adjusting pressure levels, and minimising hours of unloaded operation. Read on to find out more about energy-saving strategies to help maintain maximum operational efficiency.

1. Explore Heat Recovery Opportunities

You can potentially save a lot of money by using waste heat from air compressors. This waste heat is usually expelled to the atmosphere via the cooling systems and radiation in compressors that do not have energy recovery systems. The amount of heat that can be recovered is determined by the size and operational hours of a compressor unit. Use the recovered waste heat to save on energy costs used in heating water or in using cooling air exhausted from the space for space heating.

2. Ensure Proper Sizing of Compressed Air Equipment

The foremost requirement that needs to be observed in air-compression equipment is size. This factor deals with the loss of production opportunities or higher wastage of energy. In selecting the size:

1. i) What particular application will it serve?
2. ii) What is the facility’s airflow requirement?

iii) What is the minimum level of pressure that is needed?

1. iv) Are you in need of clean, dry air?
2. v) How many hours per year will the compressor run?
3. vi) How many shifts are operated each day?

vii) Does load vary in flow between shifts?

viii) Are there any future expansion plans?

The answers to these questions will help you choose a compressor based on not only initial cost but also on lifecycle cost calculations for long-term savings.

3. Invest in New Compressor Technologies

Compressors are one of the major investments in a company in the long run toward achieving its success. The cost of energy will make up for most of the lifetime operating costs. Upgrading will mean reducing consumption, while changing to modern equipment may prove less expensive than continuing to make significant operating expenses. A new compressor with controllers and efficient electrical motors can provide rapid returns to the bottom line.

In addition, consider improving existing compressor parts. Inquire from the provider as to whether upgrading some crucial parts of your compressed air system to newer, more efficient models would be required—the replacement of an older electronic controller, for instance, for easier control and greater efficiency of management.

4. Choose the Right Type of Compressor

For certain industries such as food and beverage, electronics, automotive, textile, and pharmaceutical, oil-free air (often classified as Class 0) is considered obligatory to maintain product integrity and quality. The use of oil-free technology can reduce oil condensation treatment costs, energy loss from pressure drops in the filters, expensive use of food-grade lubricants, and costly air filter replacements.

In situations where large volumes of air are required or where the process air needs to be under constantly high load conditions, centrifugal compressors become most useful. They provide very good energy efficiency under these circumstances and work very well with varying-speed drive (VSD) screw compressors.

5. Implement Variable Speed Drive (VSD) Technology

Processing processes experience varying demand dynamics, where compressors run at off-mode and idle periods for long durations. The result is that switching from the fixed-speed compressor to the VSD unit will lead to significant savings since the compressor runs and makes air compressed only when it is needed. Therefore, it saves the power consumption that would have gone to the off-load running. VSD compressors can save more energy at full load compared to fixed-speed units, while their VSD+ models can be the most energy-efficient systems.

Conclusion

In considering any of the above strategies for enhancing the efficiency of the compressed air system, bear in mind to put into consideration the need for regular preventive maintenance. So, by ensuring such a routine is practised over time, those efficiency gains made with new investments or upgrades will be maintained while keeping the system efficiently operating over time. Thus, implementing such strategies will result in significant, if not marginal, pressure drop reduction with improvements in energy efficiency for whole-house performance improvements.