Dealing with Sound, Water, and Heat
The compressor is in its own insulated and detached 5×5 shed behind the shop. Noise is significantly muffled, and you do not feel any vibration in the shop.
Compressor shed behind my shop
Power
The shed is fed 8-3 wire into a sub panel.
One 30A 200V breaker feeds a contactor to run the compressor. One 15A breaker feeds a light and an outlet, plus goes to a switch back inside the shop that returns to run the contactor, a bathroom fan, and an automated tank drain.
Cooling
The compressor plumbing has been altered such that the compressor itself feeds a 1/2″ 16-pass transmission oil cooler, into a water separator, and into the tank. The tank output goes through about 24′ of zig-zag 1/2″ copper pipe up the wall to help cool the air, protruding into the shop via a flexible line Future Me: “Don’t use regular plumbing solder – use Silver Solder, or Silicon-Bronze, or maybe even AN lines.”
The initial testing of the cooling system saw 8°C outside. I ran the tank from empty to full. Output got up to 110°C, and the pipe into the tank hit 20°C. That’s significant!
1/2″ 16-pass Transmission cooler with Evil Energy -8AN-to-1/2″NPT adapters
1/2″ Water Separator (bottom)
It takes a long time to unload all that volume of air when the compressor shuts off
Plumbing
Shop air runs through two filter/water-separators, and is regulated to run through the shop. The line goes UP, to a downward-sloping circuit running around the top of the wall in the shop. Each leg T’s UP first, and then drops down T’ing off to a retractable hose reel at about 7′ height, and then continuing down to the foundation walls ending at a ball-valve drain. The last leg of the sloped run is a drain only. I used copper pipe because I was given a lot of it. It was all scuffed, soldered, and clear-coated for a sort of “Steam Punk” vibe.
Dual filters/water-separators
All legs T off the top, then drop with a drain at the bottom of each leg
UPDATE MONTH-AND-A-HALF LATER….
The lead-free plumbing solder got soft, and the compressor blew the hardline off, ripping the hot AN flare end of the cooler off. So….
I ordered a new cooler. And AN hose and fittings.
And this time plumbed it in -8AN nylon braided hose. This should absorb some vibration, and not fail due to heat. We’ll see how long this lasts (3 months later – doing great!).
