Compressed air leak cost
How much air and money your compressed air leaks waste — by hole size, at your pressure and power price.
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How this calculator works
At normal line pressures, air leaving a small hole reaches the speed of sound (choked flow), so the mass flow depends only on the line pressure, temperature and hole area: ṁ = Cd·A·P1·√(κ/RT)·(2/(κ+1))(κ+1)/(2(κ−1)). It is converted to free air delivered (1.013 bar a, 20 °C) and to compressor power using the specific power you enter.
As a check, a 1/8" hole at 100 psig with Cd = 1 gives 26 cfm, in line with the 25 cfm in the US DOE compressed air tables. The example — 18 leaks from 1 to 5 mm at 7 bar — wastes about 3.5 m³/min (124 cfm), 23 kW, or USD 18,000 a year.
Limits: real leaks are irregular cracks, not round holes, so treat the result as an order-of-magnitude estimate; an ultrasonic leak survey gives better numbers. References: US DOE Improving Compressed Air System Performance sourcebook; Perry's §6 (compressible flow through orifices); Compressed Air and Gas Institute data.