How Air Knife Blowers Compare to Compressed Air Energy Consumption
When considering an Air Knife System, understanding how much air and how much energy is needed to power the different types of air delivery systems - compressed air or air blower - is crucial to seeing a quick return on your investment, as well as keeping running costs - and your environmental impact and Co2 emissions - down in the long term.
Compressed air systems, whilst cheap and easy to install, have very high operating costs when compared to efficient centrifugal blower-driven air knives and nozzles.
Air Blower Devices are highly effective, and highly efficient, for a wide range of applications, such as blow-off, cleaning and drying.
Reduced Long-Term Energy Consumption
For optimum performance and reduced long-term energy consumption, Air Knife Systems should be designed to ensure a good force to air consumption ratio, and to use as little energy as possible whilst still achieving the desired outcome.
Air Knives themselves are designed to run with higher volume, lower pressure air streams than open compressed air jets or nozzles, for example.
In general, there are two types of system used to generate air for Air Knives - compressed air systems and blower-driven systems. Both of these systems produce the high-velocity, laminar air flows needed for Air Knife drying, cleaning, blow-off and other applications, however the costs and energy use associated with them can be very different, depending on what the system is needed for.
Compressed Air vs Air Blower Energy Costs Compared
Compressed air systems, for example, generate high velocity and high pressure air, and use around 3.35m³/hr of air per centimeter, when operated at 6.9bar. For example, a 600mm Air Knife using compressed air will use 200m³/hr which translates into around £50/€602 a day if constantly run.
Compressed air systems are therefore only 10-20% efficient, as almost all of the energy used is wasted compressing and transporting the air. Compressed air systems therefore should only be used for intermittent rather than continuous blowing or drying applications.
In contrast, Air Knife blowers can run to a capacity that is as much as 80% efficient. For a start, the electricity required to run the Paxton centrifugal blower is around 5 times less than the equivalent compressed air system.
This is because blowers produce high velocity air streams using low pressure air (under 0.2bar), and so a 600mm Air Knife using blower air will cost around £4.00/€4.80 a day to run.
The air streams created by Air Knife blowers are powerful enough to remove 99%+ of moisture and debris from the surface of objects across the full range of sizes, shapes and materials.
Depending on the application the Air Device is required for, nozzles, manifolds, length of Air Knife, are all considered as part of the design process to ensure the most efficient use of air by the system.
Overall energy consumption and long-term running costs should therefore be a critical consideration when choosing an Air Knife System.
Return on Investment (ROI) Within One Year
Our performance enhanced Paxton blowers also require lower RPM than competitor blowers (competing blowers require 10-25% higher RPM on average than a Paxton blower). This means our blowers are more reliable, suitable for continuous use, have less wear, maintenance needs, noise and overall costs in comparison to competitor blowers.
With energy costs around 90% lower than with compressed air systems, most companies therefore see a Return on Investment (ROI) in one year or less with one of our Air Knife Systems.
Reduce Your Environmental Impact
The lower energy usage and the more efficient use of air means a considerably lower energy bill and lower environmental impact than if a compressed air system was used.
SolvAir blowers and Air Knife Systems are not only energy-efficient and performance enhanced, but they also come with our performance warranty and industry-leading three year warranty.
Air Knife Systems powered by blowers are therefore a massive advantage for applications which require continuous or semi-continuous operations, for example with cleaning, drying and blow-off applications that run, as objects pass through the Air Knife System on a conveyor belt.
