solar panel and akasa viper fan - help

A simple voltage regulator circuit between the fan and the solar panel would probably stop over-volting the fan.
 
Current is drawn by the load so having more current than is needed will have no effect. You could hook up a 0.17A fan to a 1000A supply and it'd be fine.

It's unclear what effect having a potential potential of 18v might have. As fans have more voltage they draw more current so if you have 50% more voltage you could see a marked increase in current, which might cause issues if it's not designed to carry that much current. It'll probably be ok as stuff like fans are over engineered to last longer.

If you are concerned a low dropout regulator should help. You can get 1v dropout regulators easy enough, they are so much less wasteful than the LM317.
 
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thanks for the replies.

grimsbylad, it's for an air vent.

resident, i checked ebay and are they the small 3 pin things? About £2 each. I'm not sure if I'd need a positive or negative one - do you know? Also, I assume I just connect the wires to complete the circuit or do I need anything else?

tealc, do you have a link to what you mean?


I was thinking I could either partially cover the panel or adjust it's angle so it's not optimised, giving less chance of it producing too much voltage?
 
Ahh, I just googled it, I'd need a few other bits to use a voltage regulator.

Might be easier just to modify/adjust the panel. I'll probably just do that.
 
If you live in the UK then expect about 1/3rd the rated output from that solar panel on average if you have good exposure to sunlight :S
 
SolarFAN said:
thanks for the replies.

grimsbylad, it's for an air vent.

resident, i checked ebay and are they the small 3 pin things? About £2 each. I'm not sure if I'd need a positive or negative one - do you know? Also, I assume I just connect the wires to complete the circuit or do I need anything else?

tealc, do you have a link to what you mean?


I was thinking I could either partially cover the panel or adjust it's angle so it's not optimised, giving less chance of it producing too much voltage?
Click to expand...

TBH I'm not overly sure, it's been along time since I've messed with electronics.
 
As I said you'd probably be ok anyway just running the fan. If it blows in 2 years rather than 5 then big deal.

You could solder a resistor in the power wires to drop the current going to the fan, but you'd need to work that out too, and if the voltage is more like 12v anyway it'll run slower all the time.

Regulators do require a few external components and will waste precious energy.
 
Hi all,

Sorry for the delay in giving you all an update.

The solar panel and fan setup I discussed here has been running fine for about a month now :)


I have another question:

1) I am considering building another unit, but bigger, so I may need a more powerful 12V fan.
So I was wondering are there better 12V fans than the akasa viper which have a higher CFM, but not crazy loud, that could be run from a solar panel etc?

Thanks.
 
Actually I just realised 120mm fan size is probably better, so I may just get another akasa viper.

I did find this fan which has similar spec and is less than half the price:
ARCTIC AFACO-120P0-GBA01 F12 PWM

Does anyone know how long these would last? Because the akasa viper says it can do about 50 000 hrs which is huge. Thanks.
 
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