I’ve been told that air compressors are very inefficient machines. The implication is that pneumatic tools are more expensive to operate than their equivalent electric power tools. The example given to me was that if sanding a panel with a random orbit electric sander adds $0.20 to your power bill, then it would cost $1.00 (about 5 x as much) to accomplish the same task with a pneumatic random orbit sander. Is there any truth to this?
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Replies
Possibly true, small air systems aren't terrifically efficient, but the numbers are more like 2 cents for the electric random orbit sander versus maybe 10 cents for the air system and that is if you sanded for a full hour.
Your shop's heat, air conditioning, and lights, not to mention driving somewhere to get materials, will use 100's of times more energy than sanding, so you should work on making those systems more efficient first if your goal is to save energy since the pay off would be much better.
John White, Yestermorrow School, Waitsfield, Vermont
Edited 9/26/2007 11:02 am ET by JohnWW
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