Solar power?

Anything electric, AC or DC

Postby Katie&Craig » Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:31 pm

Luke,
How about a solar fan? I also didn't want to do a battery and wiring for just a few lights - lanterns work fine, but I really wanted a fan for hot evenings. Some very obliging forum members showed me this site in another post:

http://www.talcoelectronics.com/productdetail.asp?id=70400
and product info
http://www.icpsolar.com/4105/news_details.asp?news_id=8

The solar fan charges two AA batteries so can run for 48 hrs without sunlight. It is meant for boats, so it sounds easy to seal. It is a bit expensive for my budget ($115 on the above site, $150 elsewhere) but it saves me from having to learn how to wire my TD and carry around a large battery so it is worth it to me. We will eventually add a small solar panel for recharging lantern and camera batteries.

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Postby mikeschn » Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:13 pm

This sounds like the beginning of a Solar Power thread, so I moved it over here...

Here is the slumbercoach with a solar panel... I've heard that it takes really big solar panels to create any energy worth while! :o

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Postby Chris C » Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:20 pm

Hmmmm! :thinking: Let's see............... :? The Slumber Coach is about 11 feet long........... so based on that, your solar panel is about 20 foot by 10 foot. Where do you store it when you're traveling? :scratchthinking: :lol:
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Postby Lukiepookie » Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:11 pm

Good move Mike I was just about to ask a few solar ?'s. see I've been looking the last couple of hours for a solar powered fan, but here is my problem the ones I want are too expensive for me. most of the inexpensive ones are just designed to move hot air out. It gets hot out here in the summer and I want an actual gust of air moving over my face. so I decided why not build my own, Ill just buy the solar panel then hook it up to one of those fans that are meant for your car. the solar panel has a cigarette adapter so it will hook right up. now the real question is, Is it even worth it, do you guys think it will even work. here are the links for the solar unit and 2 fans to chose from.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-12V-BRIEFCASE-S ... dZViewItem


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Endless- ... 8750QQrdZ1


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/12-Volt- ... 5752QQrdZ1
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Postby Rob » Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:29 pm

I haven't heard from Sarge in awhile, but he has a couple of solar panels hooked to computer fans he puts in the windows of his teardrop. I merely have a couple of battery-operated fans for a dog crate and use those to get the air moving.
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Postby davel » Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:59 pm

We use 4 of these to charge 4 7.2 AH UPS batteries. They power Cindy's Ozarka 12volt fan all night and recharge the next day.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/OEM-VW-Solar-Panel-Charger-Jetta-Golf-Audi-A6-TT-A4_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ63687QQitemZ8042505995QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW
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Postby Q » Mon Mar 06, 2006 9:27 pm

Lukiepookie,

It'll work but you're not going to move a lot of air with 700 milliamps max.. The solar module ad says "even has enough grunt to power a DC fridge!" I don't know of any DC fridge that will run on 700 ma. Also be aware that amorphous solar modules don't hold up nearly as well as crystaline modules.

Q



Lukiepookie wrote:Good move Mike I was just about to ask a few solar ?'s. see I've been looking the last couple of hours for a solar powered fan, but here is my problem the ones I want are too expensive for me. most of the inexpensive ones are just designed to move hot air out. It gets hot out here in the summer and I want an actual gust of air moving over my face. so I decided why not build my own, Ill just buy the solar panel then hook it up to one of those fans that are meant for your car. the solar panel has a cigarette adapter so it will hook right up. now the real question is, Is it even worth it, do you guys think it will even work. here are the links for the solar unit and 2 fans to chose from.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-12V-BRIEFCASE-S ... dZViewItem


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Endless- ... 8750QQrdZ1


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/12-Volt- ... 5752QQrdZ1
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Postby Lukiepookie » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:51 pm

how long would a 12 volt battery power a Fantastic fan 2000trs.
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Postby emiller » Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:05 am

I have a swamp cooler that will run on .4 amps on low http://www.swampy.net/wb.html and my 15 watt solar panel would not run it continuous just would cycle and now with my 33 watt solar panel no problem running it. I can run it all day long and still have plenty to charge my battery.
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Postby mikeschn » Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:15 am

Lukiepookie wrote:how long would a 12 volt battery power a Fantastic fan 2000trs.


A fantastic fan draws 1.8 amps...

A typical small deep cell battery might have 80 amps or so... Since you don't want to draw it down more than half way... you have 40 amps available...

40/1.8=22 hours...

But don't forget to throw in your lights... 2 amps.

You now have a total of 3.8 amps running...

Lights 3 hours at 2 amps = 6 amps per day
Fantastic Fan, 8 hours at 1.8 amps = 15 amps per day
===================================
Total amps required per day = 21 amps

So this setup is good for a typical weekend.

If you have a long 3 day weekend, or want to run a car stero, you either need a bigger battery, a backup battery, or a way to recharge your battery.

Make sense?

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Last edited by mikeschn on Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby madjack » Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:32 am

Mike the FV Amps run from 1.8 on low @478cfm to 3 on hi @ 900 cfm...on all but thehottest days low should be sufficient which should give ya at least a couple or 3 nights usage...
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Postby mikeschn » Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:57 am

Okay MJ, I adjusted the numbers to use the FV on low...

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Postby GPW » Fri Mar 17, 2006 8:46 am

There was a young student here during the storm(Katrina) that charged a marine battery with a solar panel , looked to be about 2'x6' ... powered his cooler , fan ,little TV , and some lights ... That's all I'd need for my TD ...and with new technology(and some restraint) , would keep the A's down... This system worked when everyone else was siphoning gas out of their neighbors car to run their Fema Generators ... (The Oil companies did very well indeed , profiting off the suffering of others )
Solar would take care of that and probably for the cost of a good generator... Any "engineers" out there that can set us straight ... ;)
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Postby Chris C » Fri Mar 17, 2006 8:49 am

Yup, solar panels are great...................if you plan on always being in the sun. :thinking: But if you camp primarily in the woods, you will be up the perverbial creek without a paddle (amps). :(
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Postby billnut » Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:24 am

:D I'm a Ham and my radio's run on solar power H.F has a 350ma 5watts part no. SKU # 41144 for 35.99 that I use on camp outs for the onboard Batt. and it works great for me. But I use 4 lager panels on my home.
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