The Greens

Some leaks are valid, some are not. Some are acceptable, some can not be tolerated. Depending on what is leaking, where the leak is at, and how much is leaking, will dictate the appropriate response. If water is sipping into your basement, that's not acceptable. If air is leaking out from a helium balloon, you won't have an inflated balloon.

In facilities that produce compressed air, this air has a purpose. It was produced to do some thing - to aerate, to clean, to operate an instrument. However, if part of that compressed air produced is just going out through various leak paths, then there's less air to do the work. Usual remedy is to ran the compressor more to meet the demand. Oh by the way, the leak paths also demand compressed air. Thus, more air leaks out into the environment without doing any work. It's like working hard and throwing a portion of your hard earned money into the bottomless pit never to be seen again. Now who would do such a thing? I hope no one.

Before we cut costs to improve the bottom line, take a look at your wastes and cut there. Energy wastes are expensive! Make sure you have a good Energy Management program. Every cpm leak has a dollar value attached to it. In one of the Air Leak Surveys that we did for a customer, one of his leaks was costing him $30,000 per year - continuously! Needless to say, that was the first leak they fixed after the survey.