putting a compressor outside...????

[69charged]

hey guys. i just bought a new house that we will be moving into in the next couple of months. i also have a 5hp 60g stand up compressor that i want to put outside so that i dont have to listen to it run. plus our master bedroom will be over the garage so that wont do. i thought i would fish around to see what your guys thoughts or ideas were on the best way to do this. in my current garage, i have a hole cut in the wall going to my back shed where the compressor is now but it is not insulated or anything back there and i hate turning it on in the winter. plus i would like to think about auto drains for it so i dont have to always go out to do it.
well, let the ideas fly men!!
thanks
clarence

 

[judgethis]

I have a 60 gallon compressor also and built a small shed on the back of the garage for it and other small things. It is 4ft x 4ft and not insulated. I dont use the compressor everyday or do I use it at night when it is the coldest. It has some type of drain that allows a small amount of air to leak out. Never really looked at it, I just noticed that there is a small amount of wetness under the drain.
At the shop I used to work at we had an extremely large compressor (possibly 180 gallon if not bigger) and it sat outside with just a roof over it. Never had any problems we would just open the drain when we left for the day.

 

[OccupantRJ]

Wire the compressor to your lights with a power relay so the compressor runs when the lights are on. Also, use a normally closed solenoid, controlled by an inside switch, to drain the tank when you want to. A new, not used car muffler ahead or behind your intake filter will quieten things down by modulating intake pulses.

 

[Lippyp]

I plan on building a small shed/lean to on the outside when I finally get a decent garage to house a compressor and keep the noise down. I was wondering if lining the thing with something like expanded PU foam board would also help keep the noise down.

 

[69charged]

thanks for the replies guys. i have to for sure insulate it somehow. it gets down to -40 here and when it has tried to start, it trips the breaker cause the oil is too thick. and i am running synthetic in it. i like the remote sw. idea and i have access to all kinds of solenoids. keep 'em coming.
clarence

 

[Lippyp]

Might be worth putting a small frost heater in the enclosure, even a normal lightbulb would probably put out enough heat to keep it loose. You can geta froststat that turns it on when the temp drops below a certain point.

 

[A_Pmech]

To keep the pump warm, I would install a small block heater. Either the magnetic type, or better yet, one of the silicone pads that you glue on with heat sink adhesive. That will keep your pump near operating temperature.