Compressed air is the invisible backbone of industry, critical to a huge number of tasks in industrial operations. But, as an asset that can literally float away, compressed air systems require careful monitoring and maintenance. The simple fact is leaks happen. Most utility system managers and technicians know this. The problem is that they lack the tools to understand the scope of the problem, find and fix leaks, and set up systematic monitoring and maintenance after repairs.

Compressed air leaks quickly add up

So, if you manage a site that uses compressed air, what might you be losing day-by-day, year-by-year? Even one tiny leak of 0.8mm causes losses of over 20,000 meters cubed per year, which translates to roughly 2,000 RMB (or 250 euro). This may sound small, but the scope of the problem is usually much bigger than one leak. Typically, sites that have never implemented a compressed air leak management program will find hundreds of leaks during the initial audit.

On average, sites without compressed air leak management can expect to lose 20-50% of their air per year. What happens when 50% of this valuable utility is floating away every minute? The system compensates, consuming even more energy to make up for the loss. Overproduction adds up fast and causes pain where businesses can least afford it: C02 production and energy costs.

What causes compressed air leaks?

Before looking at how to manage leakage, it is worth exploring why leaks develop in the first place. Leaks most often occur at joints, connection points and end-use applications for two main reasons.

Material factors

The quality of equipment and materials matters. Attempting to save money upfront by choosing cheaper components, such as joints, hoses and valves will lead to leaks later. Depending on the equipment and materials, deterioration may occur at a different rate of speed with different maintenance pain points. Without a leak management system, it is impossible to find every weak point.

Procedural factors

Many leaks also arise from improper installation, application and operational use. Equipment that is not in use, for example, can be a source of leaks if it is not isolated with a valve during non-operational hours. Misuse, over-pressurization and pressure drops can all also contribute to wasted energy in the air-compressor system. Proper use, monitoring and regulation of the system are integral to preventing compressed air leaks. As is one other major factor: maintenance.

Fixing compressed air leaks: fast turnaround, long-lasting value

One of the biggest advantages of compressed air leak management is a short initial setup time and a quick ROI (less than a year in most cases). Advances in software allow audits and retrofits to be implemented by a small team in a short period. Depending on the size and complexity of a compressed air system, assessments can be completed in as little as one day.

Once assessments are made, then technicians can get to work making repairs. Sometimes this may include replacing improper materials or re-installing certain equipment, addressing the material and procedural mistakes mentioned earlier. Once repairs are completed, site managers still need to ensure continuous improvement. Thankfully, leak management software can also be used to continuously optimize performance through monitoring and analysis. With the proper audit, retrofit and optimization, leaks should stay under 5-10%, the mark of a well-maintained compressed air system.

How much money and carbon do compressed air leaks generate?

If you have any doubts about the financial and environmental benefits of compressed air leak management, let the numbers speak for themselves. Imagine, for instance, you manage a factory without compressed air leak management. You might be seeing a leakage rate of 30%, the average rate for sites that are not managing leaks. Here is what that costs your business every year in terms of money and added CO2 production.

So you’ve fixed your leaks – now what?

One thing to remember is that even the best fixes must be accompanied by a good follow-up plan. Ongoing maintenance and monitoring are critical to achieving the financial/environmental savings shown above. The best solution not only finds and plugs leaks, but it should also leave you better equipped to monitor and manage future leaks. There are various paths to achieving this, but you don’t have to go it alone.

Today in Asia, new energy management models are gaining in popularity. Solutions such as Energy as a Service (EaaS) contracts make it easier for companies to outsource energy management and maintenance to a trusted partner.

Depending on your company’s financial and environmental commitments, another question to consider after you’ve addressed initial leakage problems is your longer-term strategy for compressed air equipment at your site. There is no one-size-fits-all solution here, and depending on the precise situation at your facility, you may choose to:

• Optimize the performance of your existing equipment through a blend of preventive and predictive maintenance, backed by leak-monitoring software.
• Upgrade to higher-efficiency compressed-air management systems, possibly in combination with other high-efficiency industrial assets.

The good news is that this is not an either/or choice. All equipment must be replaced eventually – the key is finding the best timing for an upgrade when the cost-benefit ratio for cost, efficiency and C02 emissions is optimal.

HVAC is the whole system of space heating, cooling and ventilation, commonly known as air conditioning. HVAC has conquered the built environment since its invention at the turn of the 20th century. In Asia, space heating and cooling have seen most of its growth in just the past 20 years. Much of this is due to economic growth in the region. Workforces in China and Southeast Asia are becoming more educated and moving toward white-collar office work. These workers expect a certain level of comfort in their working environments, leading toward full-time space cooling in offices.

By the end of this decade, 95% of non-residential building space in China is projected to be cooled. The growing demand for air conditioning is creating enormous costs for businesses and taking a huge toll on the environment through emissions.

HVAC energy impact

Space cooling and heating have a significant carbon footprint, and the numbers are striking. Currently, buildings account for nearly 25% of all primary energy use and emissions in China and ASEAN. That number is projected to reach 35% by 2030. Of those emissions, over 40% are generated by commercial and industrial HVAC.

Historically, electricity costs in Asia have been comparatively low, and there have been fewer regulations regarding emissions. However, that is changing. At the same time, workers are now considering factors such as carbon footprints when they look for employers. In turn, many tenants are looking for more efficiently managed buildings.

Even if building owners weren’t motivated by sustainability (although many now are), there are pressures that they now cannot ignore. Governments in Asia are increasingly rolling out regulations that penalize companies for their carbon impact. For example, China’s recent 2030 and 2060 initiatives to reach peak emissions and carbon neutrality, respectively.

At the same time, building owners are facing a growing amount of pressure from tenants who demand energy and environmental plans. In a recent survey by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) China, 68% of companies consider energy and environment management as “very important,” while another 31% said it was “somewhat important.”

There is also pressure on businesses and buildings from investors demanding lower carbon operations. ESG investing is growing in popularity in Asia. To continue attracting investment, companies and building managers will need not only to reduce carbon footprints—they will need to do so in a documented and transparent way.

Despite the pressure from cost and growing regulation, many companies are currently struggling to find a path toward energy efficiency. Today, somewhere around 80% of industrial and commercial buildings aren’t doing anything to optimize HVAC usage and pay the price. Industrial and commercial buildings will need to take serious action to remain competitive and compliant in the future.

That is why companies are increasingly turning to technologically driven solutions for efficiency.

What causes HVAC inefficiency?

There are two primary causes of HVAC inefficiency: technical causes and human causes. Technical causes include:

• Delayed response time between thermostats and sensors, leads to overproduction of chilled air.
• Lack of technical setup to track factors such as room occupancy and external weather conditions.

Human causes can include:

• Lack of understanding of how HVAC systems work and where they are wasteful.
• Inattention – for instance, employees forget to turn off the AC after work or meetings, leading to energy wasted cooling an empty space.
• Occupants changing the temperature, which puts added strain on the chillers and boilers.

Optimizing HVAC systems solves both of these problems. It gives building managers a way to maintain comfortable conditions for occupants while reducing both costs and environmental impact. The best part is the first phase only takes as little as one month without interfering with daily operations.

How does HVAC energy efficiency optimization work?

HVAC optimization is a solution that integrates AI, IoT and other technologies with human expertise to create smart and responsive environmental controls. The first step is to work with a team of experts who can audit your current system and set up a baseline by which to measure results. Then, the engineers get to work installing IoT sensors inside and outside the building. The sensors will collect data – such as room occupancy and weather conditions – and send it to a digitalized management platform in real-time. Finally, the platform uses AI logic (or machine learning) to take control of installed HVAC assets such as chillers and fans, automating some or most degrees of their functioning, based on real-time IoT data.

One critical point in HVAC optimization is knowing what to look for. Many companies have fallen into the trap of collecting too much data without a well-defined focus, resulting in an unusable data swamp. Knowing what to exclude is probably as important as knowing what to include. This is where it is critical to carefully set parameters and work closely with energy and data experts to ensure your system is properly set up to deliver actionable information.

At this stage, the full power of the smart HVAC system starts to show results. The system becomes even more intelligent through usage, adapting and optimizing from the growing pool of historical data it has collected. The system gathers information from day to day, month to month and across seasons. The electricity used over time is known as the load curve. With this data, the system can do more than just react more quickly; it can predict and preemptively optimize HVAC usage.

After this setup, businesses can expect to see an average of 17% in energy savings. However, companies and building managers looking for even higher savings and efficiency have a further opportunity to do so.

HVAC efficiency upgrades

One advantage of HVAC optimization (or a light retrofit) is that it can be performed quickly on existing equipment. But, after initial optimization, there may come a time when it becomes more cost-effective to upgrade. Using the load curve data generated from the smart HVAC system, engineers can put their expertise to work planning an HVAC upgrade (or a deep retrofit). They can recommend the ideal low carbon assets or equipment, such as chillers, air/ground source heat pumps, cooling storage and beyond.

Furthermore, the precise data gathered from the smart HVAC system removes all guesswork. Engineers use the data to see precisely how performance would change by replacing a piece of equipment. They can even use the data to plan the right moment to go in and replace equipment with minimal interference to building operations.

Businesses that upgrade HVAC systems this way can see extraordinary results. Compounded numbers between the smart system and asset upgrades can easily reach a 40% reduction in energy use from the baseline by integrating super low-carbon equipment.

If HVAC optimization is so great, why don’t more companies do it?

Recent research shows that while the industrial sector takes energy management seriously, buildings only accounted for 18% of energy management contracts (EMC) from 2011-2016. Part of the reason is that there are greater potential energy savings in the industrial sector, while another factor is budget. Many building or site managers may not have the up-front capital to pay for optimization or upgrades, even if it is costing them down the line.

However, that situation is likely to change soon. Recently, there has been higher support for subsidy policies favoring buildings. Secondly, financing methods such as EMCs or financing-plus-operation contracts such as Energy as a Service (EaaS) are becoming more familiar in the market. As China’s building owners become more educated about the value of these solutions, more and more will choose to optimize.

HVAC energy efficiency optimization in summary

Asia’s energy market is changing rapidly as economies develop. Buildings are using more and more energy to cool and heat their space, leading to growing emissions and costs. Simultaneously, there is pressure from the government and stakeholders in reducing carbon footprints and increasing energy efficiency. As heating and cooling account for nearly half of a building’s energy use, HVAC optimization is a great place to start cutting costs and carbon. Today that process can be done without any significant interruption of operations.

More than ever, there are a variety of ways to finance those projects and even include long-term operations inside a single contract. As the market becomes more aware of these solutions, HVAC optimization will only gain in popularity as an answer to growing financial and regulatory pressures.