Compressed Air Best Practices - May 2008 - (Page 43)

Compressed Air Industry AUTOMOTIVE ASSEMBLY | 05/08 | p p p p p p p p p p p p p First and second tier automotive suppliers Automotive assembly Aerospace: suppliers to Boeing Food processing and packaging Plastic blow molding Power generation Cement industry along the Mississippi River Steel mills and foundries Pharmaceuticals Printing Metalworking and fabrication Oil refineries Chemical plants CO2 O What is the local utility company doing with rebates? The local utility saw what we were doing fifteen years ago with audits. They saw us turn off a 200 horsepower compressor at a customer as a result of an audit and wanted to learn more. They send people to our seminars and we still work together. They have, however, stopped offering rebates. We are not sure why. Customers can monitor the dynamic efficiency of their compressed air system from their desktop PC. What makes PSI unique? PSI is the only company in Saint Louis that focuses exclusively on compressed air. Most firms are also into air tools, pumps, pneumatics, boilers and hydraulics. We try to be the compressed air experts in this area and feel that this requires 100% of our resources and focus. The other thing that makes us unique is our passion for saving energy. When we audit compressed air systems, our objective is to shut off air compressors. We work to find the best ways for our customers to achieve these objectives. We work with the local power Please describe your auditing philosophy. We’ve been doing compressed air system auditing for fifteen years now and it is ingrained in what we do. We have a true systems approach. If a customer calls and asks for a 100 hp compressor, we will ask them why he believes that is the correct size for his needs. We take great pains to provide the customer with what he needs — rather than with what he thinks he needs. Our customers appreciate this expertise. We focus on the compressed air system header piping and what needs to be done on the factory floor to optimize the header pressure. We educate our customers on system reliability and on having a system design that can automatically bring other compressors on line (for redundancy) in the most energy efficient manner. To do this requires our expertise in compressor sequencing and using master controllers for multiple air compressors. We also focus on providing HMI (Human Machine Interface) capabilities with the sequencers and integrating this information into the customers building management system. In this manner, our customers can monitor the dynamic efficiency of the compressed air systems from their desktop personal computers. Please describe your Level 1 to Level 3 auditing process. We offer three levels of audits to our customers. The Level 1 Audit involves a walkthrough of the customers’ facility. We inspect and document the equipment and interview plant personnel. We have a several-page worksheet, which we will fill in. We then will come back to the customer and provide an estimate potential energy savings. The Level 2 Audit focuses on the supply-side of the system. We measure dew point (air quality), flow and pressure for a week. We will also take the readings on compressor amperage. We think it is important to nail the numbers. The numbers have to be right (and representative of normal working conditions). We have some corporate auditing agreements where our Jim Timmersman of PSI conducts an energy management seminar www.airbestpractices.com kW p Coal mines in southern Illinois companies and conduct seminars with them. We have even trained some of their personnel. Educating and training people on how to save energy has become an important part of what we do. Over the past fifteen years, we have been conducting six to eight energy management seminars per year at our facility here in Saint Louis. They are extremely well attended by factory personnel in this region. 43 http://www.airbestpractices.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Compressed Air Best Practices - May 2008

Compressed Air Best Practices - May 2008 Contents From the Editor Utility-Air News The Compressed Air Audit of the Month Pneumatics Real World Best Practices Delta Industries: Doing What is Right for Customers Delta Industries: Six Truths You Need to Know about Really Putting the Customer First Power Supply Industries Resources for Energy Engineers Wall Street Watch Advertiser Index Job Market

Compressed Air Best Practices - May 2008

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