The Cost of Compressed Air: What are the Lifetime Costs of a Compressor?

Whether you use your air compressor for woodcarving, bottling, manufacturing consumables, compressed air plays a critical role in your business.  It is undeniable that compressed air is valuable source to your applications. 

Below are a few examples illustrating just how much compressed air really is worth, and how you can get the most of it.

  1. Shutdown your system during non-production hours:  By leaving your system on, you’ll be wasting large amounts of compressed air.  Is your business only running on the weekdays?  Turn it off nights and weekends. Just like you turn the lights off when you leave the room, you should turn your machine off when you don’t need it. If you have leaks in your system, leaving a compressor running is only wasting energy, air and money.
  2. Compressed air is 8-times more expensive than electricity: It takes a large amount of energy to compress air and most of that energy disperses as heat. Do not waste that heat! With a heat recovery system, you will stretch your energy further and reclaim that heat.
  3. Keep Energy consumption cost in mind: Think the only expense with an air compressor is the cost of the machine- Think again.  Energy consumption is the largest factor on how much you spend on your air compressor.  Ensuring your machine is operating as efficiently as possible will ensure your energy costs are in check.
  4. Drop in pressure reduces energy consumption: Make sure you are using only the necessary pressure for your application. It can be enticing to assume that a higher pressure is better, but that is not necessarily the case.
  5. Reduced operating pressure also affects the leakage rate. The higher the pressure, the more air is forced out through small (or worse, large) leaks. Make sure your pressure is at the lowest possible operating pressure for your system and check your system for leaks monthly to keep operating costs as low as possible.

Compressed air is invaluable to many industrial processes, but without proper attention and maintenance, it can be costly. For questions, please contact us

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Who we are and how Ash Air can help your business!

Ash Air has been around in New Zealand since 1979, and we’ve grown into a nationwide company with international support and a reputation for quality and reliability.We look after all things compressed air for your business!

  • Reciprocating, Screw, air compressors
  • Vacuum pumps
  • Nitrogen
  • An extensive line of air treatment components

Ash Air's range of Chicago Pneumatic, Alup, Pneumatech, and Quincy compressors are used extensively around the world in industries ranging from oil and gas to food, automotive and farming, and we bring you these world class compressors here in the land of the long white cloud.Our technicians are compressed air equipment experts and are dedicated to addressing customer needs. Supported by a 13 locations nationwide, Ash Air offers one of the widest selections of compressed air equipment and parts available today in New Zealand.

Reliability and Efficiency

With Ash Air compressors, you can count on reliability and high performance for even the most demanding applications. We focus our efforts on the following:

  • Increasing uptime
  • Reducing unexpected repairs
  • Reducing energy consumption
  • Improving the cleanliness of compressed air


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