a couple of months ago, I acquired 3 used propane tanks from the local supplier.  2 are the 125 gallon, and 1 of the 75 gallon size.  All are nice thick tanks, $90 for all three of them.   While there, one of the guys mentioned the Mennonites are grabbing the big tanks (300-1000 gallon sizes) for holding compressed air...?!   Apparently they run gas powered air compressors to pump them up, and then use the compressed air to run power tools.  I'd never heard of this before.

How HOT does that compressor get, filling a huge tank?   Do they have some kind of water cooled head & water cooled heat exchanger to increase the efficiency?  Maybe a bonk of compressors?  I'm imaging the biggest piston compressor & can think of running all day long to fill a 1000 gallon tank.  Oh, maybe they use a big Ingersol Rand screw (like what you see at job sites running jack hammers), but that'd take a couple of hours too!

I simply do not know enough about these people.  Is it their aversion to electrical power, or the desire to be off-the-grid?

Well, if they need POWER to run tools, air tools, it's a good reminder that the only welding you see off-the-grid is between battery terminals.

Does anyone live around these folks?

KJ4ADN - Bill

My dad had an old compressor back in the 60s that could handle the job because it was oil cooled, but yeah, it would take several hours to compress 1000 gallons.
I have a 55 gallon propane tank I keep full of air for emergencies, since I'm off the grid, this way I don't have to start the gen to fill the big one all the time, which tends to bleed off air over a month or so.