Oil cooling the transformer!

To some people this might sound crazy, but I wanted to do these experiments because to some people this could be very useful.

You see here is the challenge; if we make our three phase motor converter for the same voltage motor, as our supply voltage, ie: 240 in and 240 out, then the transformer is actually doing less work than when we double the voltage to run 400 to 500 volt motors.

This can lead to a problem where we sized the transformer for a certain load, and then want to run more motors, or a bigger motor. We could make a new transformer, or we could oil cool the one we already have. Now the utility companies use oil cooled transformers all the time. It is a normal thing for them. They realize the cost of making a transformer that only was air cooled would be ridiculous. It is more practical, and saves them money, to use oil cooling.

     In this video we are running the five horse air compressor at 480 volts and the ten horse vacuum cleaner at 240 volts all off the same homemade transformer. This is a relatively small transformer wound with 800 hundred feet of 12 gauge wire. Oil cooling may not be for everyone but it is definitely a viable way to handle a transformer that is not sized for air cooling.

        There are many different types of oil to use. Here I used an automatic transmission oil that has a high flash point. They make different types of oil just to cool transformers and they even have a 'green' oil that can be washed into the environment.

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