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Solar Fan in small mountain hut

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  • Solar Fan in small mountain hut

    Hello, I'm involved in trying to put a solar-powered fan in a small mountain hut to blow in outside air to control humidity. I'm thinking of putting in a standard 120 cm computer fan (0.25A), and heating the incoming air with the usual plastic solar air heater panel, black absorber fabric, etc. If the fan is connected to the panel (with a 7812 voltage regulator), the fan comes on when the sun shines, which is when the air heater panel is putting out the heat. Sounds dirt simple.

    If I got a set of 10 nicad penlite batteries and charged them when the sun was out, I could run the fan for an additional couple of hours. I need ideas for controlling the charge on the nicad battery. Is C/4 reasonable? Can I let the battery discharge completely each night thru the fan, or do I need to have the fan turn off when the cell voltage reaches 0.9 volts?

    This is in a remote location, unattended operation, below freezing. Any circuit ideas? Thanks for any help, encouragement, or interest.

  • #2
    Project completed!

    In the end we didn't use batteries, just the 22w photovoltaic panel, a 7812 regulator, and a computer fan. The fan comes on at around 7am (at this time of year) at which time there is no direct light on the panel, only diffuse light.

    Around 6pm its starting to get dark, and the fan goes off. No switches, controllers, batteries. Dirt simple. We are happy.

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    • #3
      Hi Roland!

      First, I want to apologize for letting your question slip through unanswered!

      I'm happy to hear you got it worked out and have it working just like you want it!

      I just shot you over an email as well. Talk to you soon.

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