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Compressed air savings calculator

Compressed air is the priciest utility per unit of work in most factories. Enter horsepower, load factor and leak rate to price the loss.

What it asks for: compressor hp · load factor · motor efficiency · leak share · $/kWh · running hours.

Run the numbers

What compressed-air leaks cost

Compressed air is the most expensive utility per unit of work in most factories, and the published leakage range — 20 to 30% of output — is the easiest 20% you will ever recover.

nameplate horsepower — the motor’s rated shaft output
per cent of nameplate shaft power it actually makes
per cent — from the motor nameplate; 90% is the conservative default
per cent of output lost to leaks — the published range is 20–30%
dollars per kWh — from your own bill
hours a year the compressor runs

These controls need JavaScript to recalculate. The figures beside them are the worked example at the constants listed below — real arithmetic, just not yours yet. Send us your numbers at info@quantifyenv.com and we will run them.

What it costs you

$9,549/yr

  • 79,573kWh a year, wasted
  • 13.3kW of electrical draw doing no work
  • 66.3kW drawn at the meter
Annual cost of compressed-air leakage
YOUR NUMBERS10% leak: 4,774 $/yr20% leak: 9,549 $/yr25% leak: 11,936 $/yr30% leak: 14,323 $/yr4,7749,54911,93614,323
YOUR INPUTS · YOUR RATES · CANADIAN DOLLARS

Conservative arithmetic, verified against your own utility bills. Your number comes from your own meters.

The assumptions behind this
  • air.kwPerHp — 0.746 kW/hpPhysical constant. Note that it converts nameplate horsepower to SHAFT kW, not to the electrical kW a meter bills — see air.motorEfficiency.
  • air.motorEfficiency — 0.9 fraction (shaft kW ÷ electrical kW)[TOM-REVIEW]US DOE Uniform Methods Project, Chapter 22 — Compressed Air Evaluation Protocol: electrical input power is shaft power divided by motor efficiency, and a measured or nameplate PACKAGE full-load kW is preferred over any hp-based estimate. NEMA Premium motors in the 50–200 hp band run about 0.93–0.95 at full load and lower at part load, so 0.90 is the conservative default until a nameplate or a measured package kW is supplied. energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/01/f19/UMPChapter22-compressed-air-evaluation.pdf
  • air.leakShare — 0.2–0.3 fraction of output[TOM-REVIEW]US DOE / Compressed Air Challenge leakage studies, as cited in Quantify's own concept footnote.
  • air.compressorHoursTypical — 6000 h/year[TOM-REVIEW]Quantify's own teleprompter example.
  • electricity.blendedRate — 0.12 $/kWh[TOM-REVIEW]Ontario Class B blended rate as used in Quantify's own teleprompter ('6,000 hours a year at $0.12/kWh') and concept footnotes. VERIFY against the current IESO/OEB Class B blended rate.

Every constant used here shows its source under the result. [TOM-REVIEW] before launch (§G.2). Nothing is hard-coded in a component — the constants live in src/data/benchmarks.json and the city rates in src/data/water-rates.json.

Where these numbers come from

Every constant, its value, and the document it was read out of.

  • air.kwPerHp — 0.746 kW/hpPhysical constant. Note that it converts nameplate horsepower to SHAFT kW, not to the electrical kW a meter bills — see air.motorEfficiency.
  • air.motorEfficiency — 0.9 fraction (shaft kW ÷ electrical kW)[TOM-REVIEW]US DOE Uniform Methods Project, Chapter 22 — Compressed Air Evaluation Protocol: electrical input power is shaft power divided by motor efficiency, and a measured or nameplate PACKAGE full-load kW is preferred over any hp-based estimate. NEMA Premium motors in the 50–200 hp band run about 0.93–0.95 at full load and lower at part load, so 0.90 is the conservative default until a nameplate or a measured package kW is supplied. energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/01/f19/UMPChapter22-compressed-air-evaluation.pdf
  • air.leakShare — 0.2–0.3 fraction of output[TOM-REVIEW]US DOE / Compressed Air Challenge leakage studies, as cited in Quantify's own concept footnote.
  • air.compressorHoursTypical — 6000 h/year[TOM-REVIEW]Quantify's own teleprompter example.
  • electricity.blendedRate — 0.12 $/kWh[TOM-REVIEW]Ontario Class B blended rate as used in Quantify's own teleprompter ('6,000 hours a year at $0.12/kWh') and concept footnotes. VERIFY against the current IESO/OEB Class B blended rate.

Want the real number instead of the estimate?

This page gives you an estimate from numbers you already half-know. A meter gives you the real one. We will walk your floor, tell you what is worth measuring first, and put a figure on it — no charge, no obligation.

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