Maintenance Tips

How much do Air Leaks cost your business?

Have you ever wondered what that hissing sound is when you walk through your plant or shop area? Most likely it’s a COMPRESSED AIR LEAK.

But what about the air leaks you can’t hear? Size cannot be judged by sound.

Do You know how much your AIR LEAKS are costing you?

A Department of Energy publications states:
“Compressed air leaks can account for 20% to 30% of compressors cfm output in small to medium size plants.”

In other words- you could be losing up to 30% of your compressed air because of AIR LEAKS! That’s your money leaking away! It is worth the effort to find and fix your air leaks.

Here’s how to estimate the size of air leaks:
It’s not very hard. We’ll use the “TIME METHOD” to estimate percentages of loss due to air leaks in your plant.
1.Turn OFF all air operated end-user equipment.
2.Start your air compressor and let it cycle 5 times.
3.Time the OFF-LINE/UNLOAD TIME
(not pumping time) using your watch. (Example: 5 minutes)
4.Time the ON-LINE/LOAD TIME
(pumping time) using your watch. (Example: 2 minutes)
5.Calculate total percentage of air leaks
as follows: Add the OFF / UNLOAD and the
ON / LOAD times together:
Example: T(5 minutes) + T (2 minutes)= 7 minutes
Divide ON / LOAD time T (2 minutes) by the total minutes: 2 ÷ 7 = 0.29

The result tells you 29% of your air compressor’s CFM’s are doing nothing but maintaining your AIR LEAKS.

How to figure the cost of air leaks:
Based on values from the Compressed Air & Gas Handbook, we can assume
4* CFM per air compressor horsepower. So, if you have a 100 HP compressor and the above determined 29% air leaks -use this formula:
100 HP x 4*=400 CFM x 29% (.29 air leak loss) = 116 wasted CFM.
As the chart below shows, you now know that you are
losing over $13,000 a year because of AIR LEAKS.

SIZE OF YOUR LEAK--CFM AIR LOSS--WASTED DOLLARS @YEAR
Orifice Diameter Inches
1/32 ------------------1.6 -------------- $211.70
3/32 -----------------14.5 --------------$1905.30
1/4 -----------------104.0 -------------$13665.60
1/2 -----------------415.0 -------------$54531.00

*These figures are based on values from the Compressed Air & Gas Institute Handbook. Calculations assume a conservative cost of $.25 /1000 cubic feet of compressed air, 100% coefficient of flow and working 8,760 hours/year at 100 psig.