A solar fridge fan

[TramcarTrev]

So what do you do with a small 5Watt solar panel, a few hinges and screws, some figure 8 wire, a 150mm 12V fan and a 100mm gas strut?

Well I put it all together and made a solar powered exhaust vent for the Van fridge..

In the process of doing the job I discovered why the fridge doesn't work so well when its really hot, the insulation that is on top of the fridge had slid to the side and effectively cut off the normal thermo syphoning i.e. the hot air rises and goes out the top vent, well it would have done if the insulation was not restricting the airflow…

Anyway pretty straight forward to do the job, the fan is held to the vent by the u beaut UV curing all singing all dancing adhesive though UV resistant cable ties would have done just as well.

Under the hinges and the spacer for the bottom of the strut I put a nice bed of neutral cure silicone to both act as an adhesive and maintain water tightness.

I did have to make up a spacer from some 20mm Sq aluminium tube so that when folded down in the travel position the strut goes over centre and pushes the panel against the buffers on the wall of the van.

I could have ran the fan via 12VDC and a thermostat so that it was not running all the time…..

I could have put the panel on the roof of the van and just drilled a hole for the wire….

I have ready answers to those questions…

I could have used 2 fans, they draw 200mA and the panel puts out 416mA. No solar regulator is needed just connect the fan up in parallel with the panel and wait for the sun…

DSC_2348 (Small).JPG

DSC_2350 (Small).JPG

DSC_2349 (Small).JPG