A Yorkshire-based composite manufacturer has recently benefited from an annual reduction in their energy bills of over £30,000!
The site has two large air compressors; one fixed-speed that acts as a backup and a variable-speed that is the main compressor. Engineering manager Steve commented “We had noticed that both compressors were starting to run together and if we stopped one for service the site struggled for pressure.” Due to this issue Steve contacted three local compressor companies to obtain a cost for another air compressor to solve the issue.
“Three companies were contacted” said Steve “they all carried out audits and came back with recommendations, although NC Air were the only company to come back and NOT offer a new compressor!”
NC Air carried out a full system audit and found that an incomplete ring main, under sized air receiver, a generation pressure that was too high and an unmanaged leakage rate were all adding to the increased air demand.
“NC Air were awarded the work” Steve added “they completed our ring main and added new drops, installed an air receiver three times the size of the installed one and lowered the generation pressure from 7 barG to 6 barG. Once they had completed this stage they moved onto fixing air leaks and educating our maintenance staff on the severity of audible air leaks. Now all this work has been completed and we are back to running on the single VSD compressor, which is now at 60% load and this is the lowest it has been since we installed it! I’ve been extremely impressed with NC Air from start to finish and have seen our energy bills lowered by over £30,000 per year along with service costs lowered due to the back up compressor not running unless needed!”