Solar fans

[sleepybubble]

hmmm.... I have one of those somewhere, its even got a pot' for adjusting the speed, now I just have to find it... That processor died years ago.

[sleepybubble]

yup just drove across croft to spare van and checked, I do still have it, its a Cooler Master Aero 7... I think if I took the 1/2kg of Heat sink off the bottom it wouldn't be too dear to pop in the post. You better PM me an address for it, whilst I dig out a PSU and test it still works.

yep deffo works, noisy sucker on full whack, sounds like a hairdryer... its only had about 4500 hours use, so should have plenty of life.

For anybody else, the spec of the fan mentioned is as below...


Model: Aero 7+ (Improved Aero 7 model)
Fan Dimension: 80 x 80 x 70 mm
Rated Speed: 1900~3500 rpm
Air Flow: 10.9~20.0 CFM
Rated Voltage: 7~13.8V
Air Pressure : 2.9~10.7mm H2O
Weight : 498g (heat sink and shroud), 595g (with blower)

I don't know owt about fans.... I just know this one kept that particular AMD chip cool, and it sure needed it.

<modified again> on the multimeter at lowest speed setting it reads 0.9mA and at highest speed it reads 5.2mA but that was off the positive line to the pot so I maybe measureing the wrong place... ?

[Ivan]

The picture above is the same as the fan I've got. Ebay £5.

It is a 10W fan, but with the pot you can control down to a lower power. At the moment, mine is connected up to a 5W PV, and works perfectly well like that (and has done throughout the winter).

[daftlad]

This is a PM I sent to Sleepybubble,

Sleepy
I just had a quick google and I am not sure?
It uses close to 11 watts at full power and the flow is a lot less than other fans i have looked at.
On the other hand the pressure is a lot more than any of the other fans i have looked at.
Ah just had another look, The fan I am looking at in RS uses 5 watts and if the pressure required is 10.7 mm water then it will move 20 cfm BUT importantly it is only 5 watts not 11.
6 watts of pv is very expensive compared to a fan.
I would be better off buying the 35 quid RS fan and then I would need half the PV.
The question is if i reduced the wattage and therefore the speed and therefore the pressure but also had a lower resistance so needed less pressure would it still work?
Nah I think trying to run an 11 watt fan off a 5 watt pv would not work.
Thanks ever so much for the offer but unfortunatly on this occasion hard economics and recycling the fan don't mix because of the cost of PV.
Sorry This is a bit of a ramble (thinking out loud) should we post these PM's on the thread?
Thanks again daftlad

Sleeepy, following what Ivan said and taking into account that I patantly don't know what I am on about I would like to change my mind and take you up on your kind offer.
I will PM you
Thanks everyone