Reman
Member
- Messages
- 250
- Location
- Bristol, UK.
I've been thinking about my old compressor again. It's a reasonable sized Clarke Air unit that originally ran off 3 phase. I replaced the motor to run it on single phase when I got it, and ran it like that for a few months before it was long term loaned to a friend. In the mean time I moved, and when I got it back I realised that it was just too power hungry to risk hanging it off the spur wiring in my current garage.
The original motor was a 2hp 3 phase unit. I replaced that with a second hand and quite inefficient 3hp single phase unit. That motor's pretty much on it's last legs now, So I started looking about to see what new 2hp single phase motor I could get for it, But all of them are a bit pricier than I'd like for a compressor that I've already replaced with a smaller and more convenient one (and of course, I'm currently watching the penny since I attained the position of "unemployed pond scum"). It would be nice to have it running in case of problems with it's replacement, But I don't want to go into triple digits for something that I may eventually just sell because I'm sick of tripping over it.
This is where we come to the question. I still have the original 3 phase motor somewhere, And I've got a vague feeling that it sucked somewhere between 1.5 and 2kw. So now I'm wondering if one of those cheapo Chinese VFD's could be enough to make this one usable again?
I keep seeing these AT1-2200S units on Ebay and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with them? If so, How would I go about wiring this VFD to deal with the auto stop start nature of running a compressor? Would the pressure switch go in the single or 3 phase side of the wiring? I'm wondering if the pressure switch was in the single phase side, would the VFD auto start when it get's mains power again, or would it need the start button pressing?
At the minute this is all sort of just me thinking aloud about options, but any guidance would be appreciated as I've always just slapped single phase motors on any 3 phase stuff I've bought in the past, so I've no real world experience of VFD's.
The original motor was a 2hp 3 phase unit. I replaced that with a second hand and quite inefficient 3hp single phase unit. That motor's pretty much on it's last legs now, So I started looking about to see what new 2hp single phase motor I could get for it, But all of them are a bit pricier than I'd like for a compressor that I've already replaced with a smaller and more convenient one (and of course, I'm currently watching the penny since I attained the position of "unemployed pond scum"). It would be nice to have it running in case of problems with it's replacement, But I don't want to go into triple digits for something that I may eventually just sell because I'm sick of tripping over it.
This is where we come to the question. I still have the original 3 phase motor somewhere, And I've got a vague feeling that it sucked somewhere between 1.5 and 2kw. So now I'm wondering if one of those cheapo Chinese VFD's could be enough to make this one usable again?
I keep seeing these AT1-2200S units on Ebay and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with them? If so, How would I go about wiring this VFD to deal with the auto stop start nature of running a compressor? Would the pressure switch go in the single or 3 phase side of the wiring? I'm wondering if the pressure switch was in the single phase side, would the VFD auto start when it get's mains power again, or would it need the start button pressing?
At the minute this is all sort of just me thinking aloud about options, but any guidance would be appreciated as I've always just slapped single phase motors on any 3 phase stuff I've bought in the past, so I've no real world experience of VFD's.