What is the difference of scfm and cfm?

Answer 1

SCFM is the amount (volume) of air that would happen if your air were at room temperature, and atmospheric pressure (0ft above sea level, 14.7psi). CFM (cubic feet per minute) is the amount (volume) of air that happens at the specific temperature and pressure. example: if you have a balloon that happens to be one cubic foot, and you are inside of a very hot, very high pressre room. when you walk out of the hot room, the flow rate is 1CFM, but because it is a balloon, when you take it outside the room it suddenly expands as it adjusts to outside (close to standard) conditions. So your balloon may be 3 or 4 SCFM. The two are interchangable, but when working in an industry that used flow rates heavily, it's much easier to note SCFM, because it has the added bonus of telling you temperature and pressure along with flow rate.