In 2005, the San Jose Mercury News' 410,000-square-foot printing plant redesigned their compressed air system. San Jose Mercury News engineering staff realized that the system was inefficient, leading to high energy and operating costs. To address the problem, the company turned to a statewide investor-owned utility sponsored energy efficiency program, Savings By Design (SBD), for help in designing the system and suggesting cost-saving improvements.

A consultant, Air Perfection, evaluated the compressed air system using the U.S. DOE’s AIRMaster+ software and suggested a comprehensive redesign project and also provided estimates of the project’s potential energy savings. These energy savings estimates were validated by PG&E engineering staff, who also determined the rebate the company would received under the SBD program. The result of the redesign project was better system performance and significant energy savings. With the PG&E rebate, total project costs were $129,000 and because the energy savings amounted to $96,000, the simple payback period was only 1.3 years.