ACL can help to cut energy costs and avoid expensive downtime or lost production with accurate evaluation and monitoring of the demand on a compressed air system and the way the compressors are programmed to meet it. The EU 'SAVE II' study found, most compressor systems have a 30% energy savings potential.

Compressed air installations usually have two, three or even four machines operating independently or as a controlled programmable system. When installed, the compressors will have been configured to provide the greatest efficiency under the conditions prevailing at the time. However, the original configuration may well not provide the greatest efficiency when capacities, production requirements and shift patterns have changed. Compressors are at their most efficient at 100% full load, when producing compressed air constantly. A compressor running off-load (running but not producing air) still requires power, but at a much reduced level. As eliminating off-load running altogether is unlikely to be possible, off-load running efficiencies are important when considering running costs.

Experienced compressor system designers seek to meet peak demand by running one compressor as close to 100% as possible. A second unit is then controlled automatically to operate only when the compressed air demand exceeds the capacity of the first machine. The standby compressor could be one of several machines installed to support the main compressor. Additional machines are usually selected so that together, and for predetermined periods of low demand, they can meet any likely air requirement without the main compressor. This can protect a business from costly downtime and allows for routine maintenance.
An increase in a business's power consumption may be attributable to the compressor installation. Not checking the compressor programming when power costs rise could prove to be an expensive mistake. Even an expert in compressed air will have difficulty in identifying problem areas in the new circumstances unless they can rely on accurate and detailed information of the air requirements.

An answer to this problem is available from ACL. An electronic data logger is installed for a 10-day period to monitor and record the operating status and requirements of any compressor installation. The data logger can be installed quickly, without disruption, and will collect data at one-second intervals, 24 hours a day for 250 hours. The information logged is then downloaded to a PC and processed to produce a figure for several key parameters every 15 minutes throughout the period. From these figures, compressed air flow and power consumption graphs are produced which show the workload patterns and how the compressor installation reacts to them.

A solution on how best to optimise the compressed air system can then be discussed.