Summer Heat Equals Energy Savings

Summer heat equals energy savings? No, we didn’t get our wires crossed. By preparing your facility for the onslaught of summer heat, you can save by reducing energy costs. If you haven’t thought about compressor maintenance in a few months, it’s time to consider a few simple tasks to prepare your facility for the higher temperatures.

Often, there is a greater concern for outfitting our facilities for the colder rather than the warmer months. We break out the weather stripping, check the insulation and make sure the heat is staying inside, where it belongs. The same principles apply for the summer months – conditioned air inside a building should remain separate and insulated from the unconditioned air outside a building.

In addition to prepping your compressor room for changes in temperature, regular maintenance will help your facility become as energy efficient as possible in both the summer and the winter months. Well-maintained plants are often the most energy efficient and suffer from less downtime than plants that don’t make maintenance a top priority.

Here are a few tips to ensure your facility and compressor room is ready for when the temperatures start rising:

1. Check your drains to be sure they are in good working order. Higher humidity in the summer produces more condensate and the drains will need to handle the extra flows.
2. Clean out clogged coolers (say that phrase ten times fast) to prevent compressors from overheating.
3. Clean or replace the air and oil filters in the compressor. Dirty filters lead to pressure drops and compressors will run cooler and on less energy if the filters are clean. (Atlas Copco recently introduced a new generation of filters – you can read about them here.)
4. Make sure the ventilation system in your compressor room is providing adequate air flow.
5. If your system operates a water-cooled compressor, adjust the temperature of the water to prevent overheating.

By performing simple maintenance checks on your compressor system, you will be prepared for whatever the summer (or fall or winter or spring) months throw at you. What steps do you take to prepare your facility for summer? Contact us or leave a comment below.