Hi all,
I have a boat with extreme mold/mildew issues due to poor ventilation. I've looked into various brands of solar ventilators (nicro, marinco, etc) but based on their across-the-board terrible reviews have decided not to go that route.
I saw what looked to be a good idea that someone had done on another forum using computer fans as ventilation, as they move more air and draw very little amperage. I'd like to go this route but would like the fans to run continuously off their own dedicated battery, while maintaining said battery via a solar panel. I'm not real savvy with electrical at all, so bear with me if I'm way off track here.
The main question: What size solar panel would I need to properly maintain my battery while these fans run 24/7?
What I think I know (please let me know if anything I say is wrong)...
I will run two fans (let's assume 0.25 amp draw for each, so a total of 0.5 amp draw)
0.5 amps * 12 volts = 6 watts (average load current)
6 watts running continuously for 24 hours - 6 * 24 = 144 watt daily load
My existing 12V battery states a reserve power of 25 amps for 90 minutes.
I guess this means my battery has 37.5 amp hours?
So 12V * 37.5 Ah = 450 watt hours
Now for the panel - from what I've read, you should assume you get about 5 hours of the rated wattage daily
So I'd need the panel to generate 144 watts minimum over 5 hours
144/5 = 28.8 watt panel
I assume I would want to maybe double that to account for cloudy/rainy days when the draw would exceed the recharge?
So would a 50 watt panel do the trick for my purposes? 50 watts * 5 hours = 250 watts generated daily
And I guess I would just wire the panel and the two fans direct to the battery? Not sure if there are any other components I'm missing here...
Does this make sense or are there better alternatives? Recommendations on panels? A solar panel that I could run these fans directly from would be ideal, even if they could only run for a few hours after dark on stored energy...
Any other ideas/comments/suggestions are much appreciated, feel free to tear this apart!
Thanks,
Joe
I have a boat with extreme mold/mildew issues due to poor ventilation. I've looked into various brands of solar ventilators (nicro, marinco, etc) but based on their across-the-board terrible reviews have decided not to go that route.
I saw what looked to be a good idea that someone had done on another forum using computer fans as ventilation, as they move more air and draw very little amperage. I'd like to go this route but would like the fans to run continuously off their own dedicated battery, while maintaining said battery via a solar panel. I'm not real savvy with electrical at all, so bear with me if I'm way off track here.
The main question: What size solar panel would I need to properly maintain my battery while these fans run 24/7?
What I think I know (please let me know if anything I say is wrong)...
I will run two fans (let's assume 0.25 amp draw for each, so a total of 0.5 amp draw)
0.5 amps * 12 volts = 6 watts (average load current)
6 watts running continuously for 24 hours - 6 * 24 = 144 watt daily load
My existing 12V battery states a reserve power of 25 amps for 90 minutes.
I guess this means my battery has 37.5 amp hours?
So 12V * 37.5 Ah = 450 watt hours
Now for the panel - from what I've read, you should assume you get about 5 hours of the rated wattage daily
So I'd need the panel to generate 144 watts minimum over 5 hours
144/5 = 28.8 watt panel
I assume I would want to maybe double that to account for cloudy/rainy days when the draw would exceed the recharge?
So would a 50 watt panel do the trick for my purposes? 50 watts * 5 hours = 250 watts generated daily
And I guess I would just wire the panel and the two fans direct to the battery? Not sure if there are any other components I'm missing here...
Does this make sense or are there better alternatives? Recommendations on panels? A solar panel that I could run these fans directly from would be ideal, even if they could only run for a few hours after dark on stored energy...
Any other ideas/comments/suggestions are much appreciated, feel free to tear this apart!
Thanks,
Joe