New to solar energy

Re: New to solar energy

Answer is; "it depends"...

If you just want a solar powered fan--you can get an old 12vdc computer fan and hook it to a 12volt solar panel of approximately equal or slightly larger current/wattage...

Issue is that 12vdc electronic comutated fans might experience too high a voltage with a standard "12 volt" panel (which may be from 17-21 vdc)... You might be better finding a 24 vdc fan if it needs to be reliable (fan will run slower, but probably will last longer).

If you want solar attic fans, there was a discussion a little while ago about this... One poster said that his house ended up cooler because of the additional vent locations--and when the solar fan(s) failed, he did not notice any difference.

There are some pieces of equipment, like swamp coolers, which (probably?) use brushed DC motors. You can use a solar panel and something called a Linear Current Booster and connect that to the DC Fan motor (no batteries). The Linear Current Booster basically takes the high voltage/low current that a solar panel generates in the morning and evenings, and using a switch mode regulator, converts that to low voltage/high current that a DC motor likes for starting and running at lower speeds (LCB converters can also be used with some well pumps). Here is one thread that sort of discussed some of these issues...

If you need fans for a heating system or some other system where the fans need to run when there is no sun--or at high power and reliably--then you are talking about solar panel + charge controller + batteries + fan + Low Voltage Disconnect (LVD are sometimes included with solar charge controllers).

-Bill