I want to put a small fan to blow on my compressor during these hot months. I want the fan to kick off and on with the compressor. In the box that the pressure thingy uses to turn the 220 off and on, can I just hook to any two off the three legs with the 110 wires and of course the green in the 110 cord to the ground screw in the box. Will that work. Thanks
I dont see why that wont work. You could also wire off that with a timer too to keep it running alittle after the motor reaches it desired PSI. Rusty
[ The volt meter idea is the best bet: Of the three wires, you should find a white, a black and probably a red. The black and red are both "hot" and if you use both of them to your 110 v. fan, it's goodby fan. The white wire is a neutral or ground so you want to tap one of the hots and the neutral. If the wiring in the pressure "thingy" is factory, the colors should be a dependable guide. If the rig has been done by a typical hack, the colors may not be reliable. That's why you should use a meter or an electrician's voltage detector (available at Lowes, Menards, Home Depot.). quote=JOECOOL;2099563]I want to put a small fan to blow on my compressor during these hot months. I want the fan to kick off and on with the compressor. In the box that the pressure thingy uses to turn the 220 off and on, can I just hook to any two off the three legs with the 110 wires and of course the green in the 110 cord to the ground screw in the box. Will that work. Thanks[/quote]
alot of heat builds up after the compressor cycles off// i just have a fan that runs while i'm in the shop the cost to run is minimal
Put a small fan to blow across the compressor when you are using air. Switch the compressor off when you are not in the shop. Broken air lines and other leaks can get expensive.
There is one problem with hooking a 110V circuit like that. The 220V air compressor doesn't "use" the white/green wire like a 110V circuit uses the white wire. The 110V circuit takes the hot (black/red/blue) and and runs through the white to ground. It uses a separate green wire for the equipment ground -- so that if there is an electrical leak (ie to the tank of the compressor) the green will "scavenge" that leak. On the 220V system the flow goes between the 2 hot wires. The white/green wire is the equipment ground. If you wire a 110V circuit to the white/green you will energize the tank. It will not hurt anything as it sits running because the path of least resistance is through the white/green back to the breaker panel and ground. If however you touch the tank while standing in a pool of saltwater you will quickly become the path of least resistance. All 220V appliances that have a 110V circuit incorporated (ie an electric stove (220V) with a clock/timer (110V) will use 4 wires (2 hot, 1neutral (white for the 110V) and 1 green equipment ground. Hope this helps you.
I was thinking through this again trying to give you an idea to make this work. You want the pressure switch to also switch a 110V fan off one of the 220V leads. I got to thinking that my safety tip was way off. You do not want to do the setup that you were thinking of because it will not work. 1. Think about how the 220V motor works. You have 2 "110V" hot wires on opposite phases, the current flows through the motor between the 2 hot wires and since they are opposite phases the voltage is additive to 220V. Take one of your hot wires and put your pressure switch in it. When the switch is open the circuit between the 2 hot wires is open so no current flows between the 2 hot wires (when the switch is closed the current flows). So if you tested either hot wire to ground, no matter where you test you will always get 110V. You will not get switched power to your 110V circuit from the pressure switch. The second thing to think about is that you will add a fairly high current "ground" in your 220V circuit. I don't know what the exact result of this would be but you likely will reduce the overall voltage of the 220V circuit and likely reduce the current available to the air compressor motor. What would work out better is to use a 220V rated relay switch inline on one of the hot wires to switch a 110V circuit fan that plugs into an outlet nearby.
Well I do flip the switch off when I leave the garage for the day so it may be easier to just plug the fan in and unplug it when I shut off the compressor. Thanks for the help.
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