Air compressor for a compressed air system, in particular for a compressed air brake system for a commercial vehicle

The invention relates to an air compressor (1) for a compressed air system, in particular for a compressed air brake system of a commercial vehicle. According to the invention, a compressed air cooler (8) is arranged downstream of the air compressor (1), with a cooler housing (12) through which a cooling medium flows, in which a tubular short compressed air cooling section (15) and a tubular long compressed air cooling section (16) are arranged, which are connected at their ends for a common compressed air outlet (connection point 17). Furthermore, a temperature-controlled compressed air distributor (19) is assigned to the compressed air inlet (18) of the compressed air cooler (8), which, in order to achieve and maintain a target temperature at the compressed air outlet (9) as a function of an actual temperature detected there, distributes the supplied compressed air to the inlet of the short compressed air cooling section (15) and/or the inlet of the long compressed air cooling section (16). Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for operating such an air compressor.