Portable compressor for my camper?

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willo

Contributor
Messages
90
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22
Location
Colorado
# of dives
50 - 99
I have a pretty decent solar install on my camper. I'm thinking about adding an electric compressor to the rig.
I will possibly move it over to a sailboat in a few years.

Suggestions on units to consider? Seems like a Coltri MCH-16 may be about right. Just looking to fill for myself and buddy's with me.
 
Compressor running off solar panels. Now I wanna see that!

Quick-and-dirty calculation: The smallest compressors use a 2.2kW engine. Solar panels provide DC, let's say 48V. Now apart from all the practical losses in heat, conversion,etc, this would result in a current of ~46A.
Do you have insurance for that camper in case of fire?
 
I have a pretty decent solar install on my camper. I'm thinking about adding an electric compressor to the rig.
I will possibly move it over to a sailboat in a few years.

Suggestions on units to consider? Seems like a Coltri MCH-16 may be about right. Just looking to fill for myself and buddy's with me.
How long can you pull 6300 watts off of it? At 12 volts that would be in excess of 525 amps without the voltage dropping too much.
 
How long can you pull 6300 watts off of it? At 12 volts that would be in excess of 525 amps without the voltage dropping too much.
I've got 1200 watts of solar and am upgrading to 14Kwh of battery. (And I have 50A into my camper when I'm at a camp ground.
Currently I'm adding a 3Kw inverter and am considering adding a second.

One of the bigger questions in my mind: How loud are the small electric compressors? (Need to go find some videos at least)

I can guarantee that I can't run a gas comp at many campgrounds - they'll think it's a generator.
 
How long can you pull 6300 watts off of it? At 12 volts that would be in excess of 525 amps without the voltage dropping too much.

Hmm, this brings up a couple of ideas's in my mind. My battery system is actually 24V. I could set one up with a DC motor to run off the pack. If I used a brushless motor I can get pretty good efficiency and take advantage of a speed controller to adjust power use...
 
small compressors are still quite loud. The cooling fans and air intakes are not the quietest things in the world and with some modifications you can certainly quiet them down, but they're still as loud as a small generator. The gas engines don't make them much louder.

You can't use speed controllers on most compressors as they are splash lubricated and can only be slowed down to about 80% of their rated RPM.
You need about 1.5kw/cfm with all of the efficiency losses, so it's not small.

The only compressor that would really work for what you're looking for is a Rix SA3 or SA6 which can be slowed down as much as you want and they're also oil-less designs which means you can mount them in any orientation.

Quick math. 14kwh of battery means you only have about 10kwh usable MAX. With efficiency losses and what not, that's 7kwh give or take of stuff you can actually consume. Smallest electric compressors are usually 3hp, so you MIGHT get 2 hours of use out of them, not a whole lot of wiggle room for filling tanks. If you have 50a service at 240vac then that is a different discussion since the compressors are also all 240vac.

This is not going to be a plug and play solution for you
 
I love me some theory discussions!

Actually with LifePO4 I could use all 14KWh, but I'd be killing the life of the cells a bit every time. So yeah around 80% DOD on that pack.
That said, don't discount the power produced by the solar cells - that's around a Kwh in good light.

What I'm really liking is the idea of building a compressor into my 5th wheel - I have space and it'd be sweet to fill up after diving.
I do have 50amp service on the camper and when I'm in dive areas I'm usually plugged in.

One nice thing about the victron inverters I have is that they can run hybrid - meaning they can supplement the circuit. That would allow me to use some solar to augment power if/when it's a bit on the crappy side. I am still researching if two inverters would still generate dual phase power when fed from a single phase like a crappy 110 outlet.

So yeah, a dual phase electric compressor may be the way to go for me. It'd also give me data for pure solar to determine if running on a sailboat would be possible. Honestly, I'd take having a good generator to maintain over yet another little gas engine any day.

Heck, my old camper has a 1200cc V-Twin generator. It's sooo much nicer than any small motor and it's really one of the crappier units around.
 
Compressor running off solar panels. Now I wanna see that!

Quick-and-dirty calculation: The smallest compressors use a 2.2kW engine. Solar panels provide DC, let's say 48V. Now apart from all the practical losses in heat, conversion,etc, this would result in a current of ~46A.
Do you have insurance for that camper in case of fire?

Lest I forget this one!

My system is actually a 24v DC system. It'll dump out several hundred amps if needed.
But really, I'm running a 3Kw inverter, and considering a second to have dual phase up to 6Kw inversion.

My current upgrade is 14Kw of battery, but it's cheap enough I could double that if I really need it.
Keep in mind that I've got 1.2kW of solar + battery storage. Filling during the day could be pretty comfortable actuall.

And yes, full coverage on the Glamper.
 
I'm pretty sure someone else is gonna explain it better than me...

There's 2 types of power consumers: resistors and coils.
Anything that behaves like a resistor, e.g. a light, won't be a problem when you look at the power available. Batteries (and solar panels) are ideal power sources for these kind of appliances.
Anything that behaves like a coil, .e.g. an electrical engine, will be a problem. Watt is not the same as Volt-Ampere. If you have a 3kVA generator, you won't be able to power a 3kW engine with it.

But I'm always eager to learn something new. So if you manage to get a compressor running on solar, I want to see it!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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