Air Consumption Calculator

No. Duty cycle describes how much of the TIME a single tool is actually consuming air while it's connected (50% means running half the time it's plugged in). Diversity factor describes what FRACTION OF ALL TOOLS are drawing air at the same moment. A shop can have tools with high individual duty cycles that rarely overlap, or the reverse, and this calculator captures those as two separate multipliers.

Yes -- it is a direct multiplier in the underlying formula (effective CFM per tool times number of tools times diversity factor). Because it's a whole-number input, a small percentage nudge around the default of 4 tools can round right back to 4 itself, but any genuinely different tool count -- going from 4 tools to 6 or 8, for example -- moves total demand in direct proportion, the same as the other three factors.

SCFM (standard cubic feet per minute) assumes your entered rated CFM is already measured at standard reference conditions (14.7 psia, 68 degrees F), which is how most manufacturer tool specifications are published. If your tool's rating uses a different reference condition, you would need a separate correction before this total accurately reflects true standard-condition flow.

It is a flat multiplier applied on top of total calculated demand (total demand x 1.25), intended to cover future tool additions, line losses, and normal wear that gradually reduces compressor output over its service life. It scales with whatever total demand you calculate, so a larger tool fleet gets a proportionally larger margin in absolute CFM terms.

A diversity factor of 1.0 assumes every connected tool draws air simultaneously at its duty-cycle-adjusted rate, which is the most conservative (highest-demand) assumption this calculator allows. Most real shops run well below 1.0 because tools are used at different times, which is why the default of 0.75 and the helpText's guidance toward lower values for larger shops both reflect typical, less conservative usage.