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Found out my shop's air dryer was costing me $200 a month in wasted power
I was looking at our electric bill last month and noticed it was way higher than normal. After some digging with a clamp meter, I found the air dryer was cycling nonstop because the purge valve was hanging open just a crack. That little leak was dumping compressed air 24/7 and running up the bill by about $200 a month. Has anyone else tracked down hidden power drains in their shop equipment?
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olivers2827d ago
Man, I had a similar thing happen with our shop air setup a couple years back. We were running a small screw compressor with a refrigerated dryer, and I started noticing the compressor was cycling on and off like crazy even when nobody was using tools. After messing around with a ultrasonic leak detector, I found the automatic drain on the dryer filter was stuck halfway open. It was basically bleeding air 24/7. Replacing that little $20 valve dropped our electric bill by about $150 the next month. Take this with a grain of salt, but sometimes its the cheap little parts that sneak up on you.
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christopher_flores4626d ago
Actually @olivers28, that reminds me of a buddy's paint booth setup. He had two 500 gallon tanks and the compressor ran nonstop. He looked at everything else but the dump valve on the separator. That little plastic valve had a tiny crack in the body. It was so small you could barely see it but it leaked enough air to keep the system running every 10 minutes. He swapped it out for a brass one from the hardware store and that fixed it. Cost him like 8 bucks and a hour of his time. Its funny how those little things eat up so much power.
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