Compressed Air Audits and Leak Detection

Compressed air is the most expensive utility in most plants. Roughly 90 percent of the electrical energy going into a compressor is lost as heat before any air reaches a tool. When the air you did pay for then escapes through a bad fitting, you pay full price for nothing.

Industry studies, including work by the US Department of Energy, put typical leak losses at 20 to 30 percent of total compressed air output in plants without an active leak program. The per-leak math is blunt. A 1/8 inch hole at 100 psig passes roughly 26 CFM. A rotary screw compressor needs about 18 to 22 kW to produce 100 CFM, so one CFM of round-the-clock leakage burns on the order of 1,800 kWh a year. One hole in one quick coupler can quietly cost more than the audit that would have found it.

Leaks also do damage beyond the power bill. They drag header pressure down, which pushes operators to raise setpoints, which makes every other leak flow harder and every regulator work farther from its sweet spot.

A one-hour walkthrough misses how the system behaves at 3 a.m. So we log data across full production cycles: header pressure in the compressor room and at the far ends of the plant, plus compressor load, across days, nights, and weekends.

The profile answers questions a leak count cannot. If a compressor runs loaded all weekend while the plant sits empty, that load is almost entirely leaks and open blow-offs, and it gives a hard number for total leak flow. If pressure sags 15 psi between the receiver and a packaging line every time a palletizer cycles, the problem is piping restriction, not compressor capacity. If setpoints have crept up over the years to compensate, note that every 2 psi of extra pressure costs roughly 1 percent more compressor energy and pushes more flow through every leak.

Demand analysis separates real production air from artificial demand, so you fix the right problem instead of buying a bigger compressor.

Bedford Industrial Automation is based in Dieppe NB and works across Moncton, Saint John, Halifax, Truro, Amherst, and Charlottetown. Compressed air problems in this region have a regional flavour. Seafood processors run washdown environments that corrode fittings and chew through quick couplers. Sawmills and forestry operations run long header runs through freeze-thaw cycles that crack joints and stick drains. Manufacturers that operate continuously never get a quiet window when leaks are easy to hear, which is exactly what ultrasonic survey work is for.

There is also money on the table. SaveEnergyNB in New Brunswick and Efficiency Nova Scotia both run industrial energy efficiency programs, and compressed air measures are a common fit. Incentive levels and eligibility change by program and year, but a documented audit with measured baselines and projected savings is exactly the paperwork those applications need. We build the report so it can do double duty as program documentation.

Because plants here are spread out, we scope each visit so one trip covers the whole system, and when you call the line at 1-833-423-3367, a real person answers to address what a report cannot predict.