Tom Jenkins of Jentech writing in Compressed Air Best Practices explains that turndown is more critical to optimizing blower energy consumption than efficiency. Supplying excess air wastes more energy than the savings available by using a more efficient blower. An oversized blower with the highest best efficiency point (BEP) may not provide the lowest energy consumption for actual operating conditions. Regulatory agencies require standby blower capacity: the system must be able to provide design air flow with the largest blower out of service. Many designers provide two blowers at 100% of design capacity in order to minimize equipment cost. This arrangement will result in 50% system turndown – much lower than needed. Another common arrangement is three blowers - each with a capacity of 50% of design flow; this provides about 75% turndown. A better arrangement is four blowers. Each may be sized to provide 33% design capacity; the resulting turndown is 83%. Alternatively, two may be sized at 50% design flow and two at 25% design flow; then 88% turndown can be achieved.

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