Remote Switch for Compressor w/ Mag Starter

[smdiye]

Hi guys, new to the forum and hoping for a little guidance. I am setting up a Quincy compressor w/ a Eaton magnetic starter in the basement that I would like to be able to remotely activate in the garage. I was wondering what would be the best way to go about this. I would prefer to do this with low voltage wire. Would it be best to splice into the 14 gauge wire going to the pressure switch and run that with Romex up to a light switch in the garage? Any help is greatly appreciated.

I have attached a few photos of the magnetic starter as currently setup.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

yes u can use #14 to connect a snap switch for interrupting coil circuit on pressure switch side.

But it shouldnt be low voltage wire. And NM-B aka Romex is NOT low voltage wire.

Where is the panel in relation to the compressor?

Dont forget to put a wire nut on the ground wires....And the starter enclosure should get bonded to those ground wires as well....

Whats the HP rating on the compressor and what size wire did u use on both sides of the starter? (to starter and to motor)

 

[smdiye]

yes u can use #14 to connect a snap switch for interrupting coil circuit on pressure switch side.

But it shouldnt be low voltage wire. And NM-B aka Romex is NOT low voltage wire.

Ok just to be clear then, would it be acceptable to run 14 gauge romex to the snap switch?

Where is the panel in relation to the compressor?

It is out of view so I am using a non-fused disconnect as shown below

Dont forget to put a wire nut on the ground wires....And the starter enclosure should get bonded to those ground wires as well....

will do, was planning on perhaps installing a ground bar

Whats the HP rating on the compressor and what size wire did u use on both sides of the starter? (to starter and to motor)

Its a quincy QT54 and the motor lists it as SPL. It doesn't need a magnetic starter but because I found one cheap on ebay and I'd like to have a remote disconnect it seemed to make sense I used 8/2 romex to the disconnect then 8 gauge stranded THHN from the disconnect to the mag starter and from the mag starter to the motor. I was thinking it would of probably been okay to use 10 gauge THHN instead since it would of been easier to work with.




Still in the process of wiring everything so please forgive the mess


Thanks for the help!

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Ok just to be clear then, would it be acceptable to run 14 gauge romex to the snap switch?

yes, coil current is low...

It is out of view so I am using a non-fused disconnect as shown below

thats good. :thumbup

will do, was planning on perhaps installing a ground bar

good idea...

Its a quincy QT54 and the motor lists it as SPL. It doesn't need a magnetic starter but because I found one cheap on ebay and I'd like to have a remote disconnect it seemed to make sense I used 8/2 romex to the disconnect then 8 gauge stranded THHN from the disconnect to the mag starter and from the mag starter to the motor. I was thinking it would of probably been okay to use 10 gauge THHN instead since it would of been easier to work with.

Still in the process of wiring everything so please forgive the mess


Thanks for the help!

wow thats surprising for quincy to do the SPL bullsh*t...

What is the FLA rating??

 

[smdiye]

wow thats surprising for quincy to do the SPL bullsh*t...

What is the FLA rating??

Yea it is, I guess that's what you get for buying the lower end model...

I believe the FLA is 21, not 100% sure

 

[wyliesdiesels]

yup 21a.

FLA= full load amps sometimes listed as just amps

so thats a 5HP motor...

 

[wkparker]

My compressor is in an outbuilding 30' from my garage. I turn power to it on & off using a solid state relay (SSR) that uses low voltage to switch 120-240VAC. I also added a relay to the motor, which I use to indicate when it is running via an LED indicator in the garage. I used CAT5 (ethernet) cable to link the two. It's been running well for 2+ years.

 

[smdiye]

As a continuation to this setup, I was hoping that by "tapping" into the line after the pressure switch I would be able to wire in a hobbs meter; however, it fails to start. The line voltage reads 247 before the pressure switch and my meter states its operating voltage is 120 to 240 volts so I would assume it should work but the motor fails to start...

Right now I have a lead coming off L1 to a toggle switch to the pressure switch and then to the hobbs meter back to magnetic starter (see red arrows in above pic). It works fine when I remove the meter from the equation. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[tailshaft56]

Just guessing it sound like you have the meter wired in series with your switches. try running you meter from hot to hot. Parallel.

 

[smdiye]

Just guessing it sound like you have the meter wired in series with your switches. try running you meter from hot to hot. Parallel.

Ahh okay that makes sense. Just to be clear what spades would I then connect to on the mag starter so that the meter would run only when the motor is actually running? Thanks for the help.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

My compressor is in an outbuilding 30' from my garage. I turn power to it on & off using a solid state relay (SSR) that uses low voltage to switch 120-240VAC. I also added a relay to the motor, which I use to indicate when it is running via an LED indicator in the garage. I used CAT5 (ethernet) cable to link the two. It's been running well for 2+ years.

Hopefully u have a local disconnect at the compressor as well...

As a continuation to this setup, I was hoping that by "tapping" into the line after the pressure switch I would be able to wire in a hobbs meter; however, it fails to start. The line voltage reads 247 before the pressure switch and my meter states its operating voltage is 120 to 240 volts so I would assume it should work but the motor fails to start...

Right now I have a lead coming off L1 to a toggle switch to the pressure switch and then to the hobbs meter back to magnetic starter (see red arrows in above pic). It works fine when I remove the meter from the equation. Any ideas would be appreciated.

SO you wired the meter in series which doesnt work since the meter isnt seeing 120v as you only have one of 2 wires that are needed to provide 120v to the meter. An the motor fails to start because the meter is either not providing full 120v terminal to terminal due to resistance of the meter OR the terminals dont have any continuity at all so the start coil is not seeing any voltage on this leg....

If u want to get the meter to work, u will need to either A) splice in a lead in parallel with the output of the PS so that u have one lead from the pressure switch, one lead to the meter and the 3rd lead going to the starter coil. Then connect a neutral to the other terminal on the meter.

I didnt dig through the thread so Im not sure if u ran a neutral with your branch circuit feeders. If this is not the case then you will have to do B) below.

B) one hot lead from pressure switch as explained in A) above and the other hot lead(providing 240v to meter) from L1 or L2 (whichever hot leg is NOT GOING to the pressure switch). This is coming from the other side of the coil.....

Hopefully that helps but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words or two.....and i dont have a pic to show what I am saying...

 

[alfredeneuman]

You don't have the proper working clearance for the starter or the disconnect with the compressor located there.
There should be a 36" deep clear space in front of them per the NEC (110.26)

 

[smdiye]

Hopefully u have a local disconnect at the compressor as well...



SO you wired the meter in series which doesnt work since the meter isnt seeing 120v as you only have one of 2 wires that are needed to provide 120v to the meter. An the motor fails to start because the meter is either not providing full 120v terminal to terminal due to resistance of the meter OR the terminals dont have any continuity at all so the start coil is not seeing any voltage on this leg....

If u want to get the meter to work, u will need to either A) splice in a lead in parallel with the output of the PS so that u have one lead from the pressure switch, one lead to the meter and the 3rd lead going to the starter coil. Then connect a neutral to the other terminal on the meter.

I didnt dig through the thread so Im not sure if u ran a neutral with your branch circuit feeders. If this is not the case then you will have to do B) below.

B) one hot lead from pressure switch as explained in A) above and the other hot lead(providing 240v to meter) from L1 or L2 (whichever hot leg is NOT GOING to the pressure switch). This is coming from the other side of the coil.....

Hopefully that helps but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words or two.....and i dont have a pic to show what I am saying...

Thanks for all the help again and sorry for the delay I have been out of town.

Ok so it looks like I will have to go with plan B. I understand having a hot lead from whatever lead is not going to the pressure switch (L2 in my case) but how would I go about running a hot lead from the pressure switch to the meter? Right now I have a lead coming from line 1 and a lead returning from the pressure switch to terminal 1 (behind lead 1) in the magnetic starter. Should I run another 14 gauge wire off the second tab on L1 (in addition to the 1st) to the pressure switch and have a return directly to the meter by utilizing the two remaining free terminals on the pressure switch? I have included a pic of the pressure switch.

 

[smdiye]

if any one can provide some insight to the above I'd really appreciate it...

 

[American Locomotive]

You could just hook the meter up to the magnetic starter output terminals, no?

 

[wyliesdiesels]

if any one can provide some insight to the above I'd really appreciate it...

Just splice the wire that is on the load/switched side of the pressure switch.

The other contacts on the pressure switch wont have any voltage on them.

You could just hook the meter up to the magnetic starter output terminals, no?

Not without a fuse...

 

[American Locomotive]

Not without a fuse...

Hook it up with a small fractional amp fuse. That way the meter only counts time when the motor is actually running, not just when the pressure switch has clicked in.