New compressor and sound reduction box.

[daleyd]

Nope degrees C it was torture.

Thick leather working gloves on couldn't even touch the engine room hand rails otherwise burnt had straight away.

You do know water boils at 100 deg C, and the hottest “natural” temperature ever recorded on earth is around 56 degrees C?

 

[Robbie260]

You do know water boils at 100 deg C, and the hottest “natural” temperature ever recorded on earth is around 56 degrees C?

Yes but totally enclosed machinery spaces with water tight doors and no ventilation and with fuel heaters heating heavy fuel oil to 150 degrees C, fuel purifcation equipment running heating fuel to 100 degrees c, 200m3 settling and sevice tanks both holding fuel at 80 degree's c and 110 degrees c respectively, plus a sulzer RTA 12 cylinder with a jacket temperature of 95 degrees running at full chat plus generators, and because we were in the piracy area doors and skylight and funnel vent flaps all shut so no way for heat to escape it got very hot very quickly.

 

[Jbo2231]

You do know water boils at 100 deg C, and the hottest “natural” temperature ever recorded on earth is around 56 degrees C?

I can well believe what he says considering I have a box in my kitchen capable of getting to 240 degrees Celsius without an issue.

All I can say guys is I'm sorry you had to go through that. The fact that its legal, or was legal, to put people in that position is beyond me.
I bet the risk of pirates was looking mighty friendly and tempting at 100 degrees!

Got the box finished today, figured I may as well finish it with the bits I have.
So to wrap up the air flows from outside, through the ducting and into the enclosure behind each fan on the compressor. It then flows over the cylinders and out the enclosure door in to the ducting attached to the front (directly opposite the intakes) The connections to the enclosure are done with 90 degree elbows to prevent kinking.
Then using a Y piece connected to a 550m3/hr fan sucking air out of the box.
Ran the compressor like this with a blow off gun held wide open at 150 psi for 15 minutes. Compressor was turning on and off throughout, the temperature got to 33 degrees inside the enclosure and it was 26 degrees in the workshop.
Obviously have to monitor this very closely and will stop all work if the enclosure gets to 37 degrees. It takes around 10 minutes to bring the enclosure back to room temperature.


Plan is to improve the design by increasing the ducting size to 12 inch rather than 8 inch and use two fans, one for each pump. Also want to install some intake filters to keep the dust and rodents out. Possibly the cat out as well when they are 12 inch intakes.

Also got a meat thermometer coming so I can do some readings of the oil temperature for a more accurate reading. The room thermometer is just a cheap 10 quid thing off Amazon so not taking its reading as gospel.

The sound deadening surprised me. Unless you have your hand on the box to feel the vibrations you cant hear the first pump over the extractor fan when it kicks in. Theres a low rumble when both are going that you cant hear unless you are within a few meters of the workshop so mission accomplished there. Cant hear the extractor fan outside the workshop either.

Will be tiptoeing around the compressor until I can get the less restrictive ducting installed.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll definitely be designing something with copper tubing to help reduce the air temperature. I am thinking if I build a type of radiator between the 270L tank and the 100L tank I could cool the air down between them. Not sure if it would work better inside the enclosure to make use of the air movement and to minimise the space that is used up by the air system, or if that would restrict air flow. Thoughts for another day once I am confident in the enclosure regulating its temperature.

 

[daleyd]

I can well believe what he says considering I have a box in my kitchen capable of getting to 240 degrees Celsius without an issue

Im not arguing about the physics of being able to heat something to that temp - it’s about the ability to actually function in that temperature I find hard to believe. I’ve been in an engine room with a couple of gas turbines running which was closed down for chemical warfare drills - 60 deg C and it was unbearable for more than a few minutes. 100 deg C - nah. Heat your oven to that temp and try and climb inside. Anyway I digress, it’s not helping your dilemma with your compressor...

 

[Morrisman]

The sound deadening surprised me. Unless you have your hand on the box to feel the vibrations you cant hear the first pump over the extractor fan when it kicks in. Theres a low rumble when both are going that you cant hear unless you are within a few meters of the workshop so mission accomplished there. Cant hear the extractor fan outside the workshop either.

Sounds like a success then, and you have an allowance for a more effective and probably noisier cooling system if required.