For decades, compressor manufacturers found creative ways to present their energy consumption in the most favorable light when up against competitors. Some were more scrupulous than others, but often the customer did not get the best value possible.
In the late 1990s— to forestall potentially cumbersome government regulations— the Compressed Air and Gas Institute and its compressor manufacturer members worked together to agree upon standards for measuring the energy efficiency of compressors and a format for publishing it so that buyers and specifiers could make fair comparisons when selecting compressors. The product of this effort is commonly known as the “CAGI datasheet” (see example below), and we’ve written about this before. The datasheets enable better apples-to-apples comparisons, and they can be helpful in providing documentation necessary for some utility rebate programs.
They further agreed to test protocols and developed a Performance Verification Program in which participating members’ products are periodically and randomly selected for testing by a third party to verify the performance data that manufacturers published in the CAGI datasheets format. Participation is voluntary and open to all manufacturers, whether they are CAGI members or not.
Participants may publish a decal on compressors as well as product literature, web pages, etc.
The key thing to be aware of is that manufacturers should not publish performance in the official format shown above or in any way present the Performance Verification logo unless they officially participate in the program and are in good standing. As of this writing, only 9 out of 21 members of CAGI’s Rotary Positive compressor section are currently participating in the Performance Verification Program. By the way, the CAGI program is the only one of its kind. I mention this because we’ve seen some creative marketing out there that implies government certification of product performance.
If a participating member’s products fail to measure up to published performance three times in a five year period, that manufacturer is suspended from the program for a minimum period of six months and should not present customers with CAGI datasheets or represent that they are participants in the Performance Verification Program.
If energy efficiency is important when selecting compressors, you owe it to yourself to get the product’s current CAGI datasheet and confirm the manufacturer is a current participant in the program (on the CAGI website).