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SOLAR VENTILATION FAN FOR BATHROOM


ALAN DENMAN

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Hi everyone,

Can anyone recommend a good, well-designed ventilation fan for a bathroom that works both on solar and battery back up? 

Are solar fans powerful enough, do you think? Or would it be better to get a fan that connects to the 12v system? If so, any suggestions for this also?

Thanks, everyone, for your advice.

Alan

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8 minutes ago, ALAN DENMAN said:

Hi everyone,

Can anyone recommend a good, well-designed ventilation fan for a bathroom that works both on solar and battery back up? 

Are solar fans powerful enough, do you think? Or would it be better to get a fan that connects to the 12v system? If so, any suggestions for this also?

Thanks, everyone, for your advice.

Alan

I have had 12 volt before that nearly but not quite did the job. My last boat had a substantial mains powered one intended I suppose for domestic use. It ran through our inverter and was way better than the previous 12 volt on a previous boat and so in effect used less power than the 12 volt one as it actualy cleared moisture very quickly rather than taking ages as the 12 volt one did.

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Type  'solar powered extractor fans' into the googlebox and you will come up with plenty.

A chum bought the Sunshine Solar job and seemed pleased but at that price I'm not sure if he would have owned up if it had turned out to be crap.

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1 hour ago, Sea Dog said:

Why don't you take the simple route and just buy a fan designed for venting boat bathrooms? Mine's on the 12V system and does a decent job.

Oy you.............stop talking sense.

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13 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Oy you.............stop talking sense.

Hahaha!... horses for courses innit Tim , some go off the shelf in the swindlery, some have smaller wallets (or come from yorkshire) and have a bigger toolbox and plenty of imagination!

 

Rick

 

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2 hours ago, dccruiser said:

Hahaha!... horses for courses innit Tim , some go off the shelf in the swindlery, some have smaller wallets (or come from yorkshire) and have a bigger toolbox and plenty of imagination!

 

Rick

 

As it happens, I'm an Engineer, I have a pretty good toolkit and... I'm a Yorkshireman. Now, stop buggering about! :D

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5 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

Why don't you take the simple route and just buy a fan designed for venting boat bathrooms? Mine's on the 12V system and does a decent job.

A Solar powered Fan would be of little use in Winter Months and of no use at all at night, just a Gimmick Born of Eco Fervour.

Edited by cereal tiller
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12 hours ago, cereal tiller said:

A Solar powered Fan would be of little use in Winter Months and of no use at all at night, just a Gimmick Born of Eco Fervour.

Couldn't agree more - he needs a 12V extractor fan designed for boat bathrooms. There may be other solutions,  but they'll be sub-optimal. That said, it's his boat! :)

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On 11/7/2017 at 13:05, ALAN DENMAN said:

Hi everyone,

Can anyone recommend a good, well-designed ventilation fan for a bathroom that works both on solar and battery back up? 

Are solar fans powerful enough, do you think? Or would it be better to get a fan that connects to the 12v system? If so, any suggestions for this also?

Thanks, everyone, for your advice.

Alan

Open the window.

:)

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On 07/11/2017 at 13:05, ALAN DENMAN said:

Hi everyone,

Can anyone recommend a good, well-designed ventilation fan for a bathroom that works both on solar and battery back up? 

Are solar fans powerful enough, do you think? Or would it be better to get a fan that connects to the 12v system? If so, any suggestions for this also?

Thanks, everyone, for your advice.

Alan

 

I don't understand what makes any old fan into a solar fan. A fan doesn't know or care where it's electricity comes from, provided it gets it. 

You can choose any fan you like to do a good job of ventilating a bathroom and it will work fine connected up to a big enough array of solar panels. But only in daylight, as CT points out. The battery back-up you mention is nothing to do with the fan, all all to do with the batteries and wiring installed in your boat :)

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Old fans do get a bit sentimental in advancing years. I think they do care where their power comes from.

I think Laurie has best tried and tested solution. We have a small squeegee that we clear the mirror with so that we can see how lovely and clean we look after a shower. It can be diappointing in the summer months when you wrongly thought you had a suntan.

 

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On 09/11/2017 at 09:01, Nightwatch said:

Old fans do get a bit sentimental in advancing years. I think they do care where their power comes from.

 

Ok I agree, I was being unnecessarily harsh and they DO care where their electricity comes from.

But how do they find out? And what would they do about it if they discovered their electrons were the wrong sort?

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6 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Ok I agree, I was being unnecessarily harsh and they DO care where their electricity comes from.

But how do they find out? And what would they do about it if they discovered their electrons were the wrong sort?

They'd stop working, of course. 

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One thing to be aware of. The fan blades, motor, shroud, grill, supports and so on will reduce the area available for ventilation when the fan is off. If your high level ventilation is a bit borderline for the boat safety scheme requirements, then adding an electric fan, solar, or otherwise may be a problem at the next inspection. The inspectors don't take account of the air flow with the fan running, only what ventilation area is available with it stopped. You may need to cut an extra roof vent in the to keep within the requirements. Depends on your BSS bod and how eagle eyed they are and officious they are feeling on the day.

Jen

27 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Ok I agree, I was being unnecessarily harsh and they DO care where their electricity comes from.

But how do they find out? And what would they do about it if they discovered their electrons were the wrong sort?

Solar electrons are the right sort during the day, but the wrong sort at night. It's why the fan stops working when the sun goes down.

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9 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

One thing to be aware of. The fan blades, motor, shroud, grill, supports and so on will reduce the area available for ventilation when the fan is off. If your high level ventilation is a bit borderline for the boat safety scheme requirements, then adding an electric fan, solar, or otherwise may be a problem at the next inspection. The inspectors don't take account of the air flow with the fan running, only what ventilation area is available with it stopped. You may need to cut an extra roof vent in the to keep within the requirements. Depends on your BSS bod and how eagle eyed they are and officious they are feeling on the day.

I was going to mention that myself but don’t the inspectors only take into account the ventilation in the main living area? If so, wouldn’t the bathroom be ignored anyway?

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1 minute ago, WotEver said:

I was going to mention that myself but don’t the inspectors only take into account the ventilation in the main living area? If so, wouldn’t the bathroom be ignored anyway?

My understanding is that the bathroom is included in the living area. Especially if you sometimes fall asleep in the bath tub (my boat has a bath). My BSS inspectors have always counted all the roof vents, including the bathroom, measured the cross section, then de-rated them by a percentage for grills.

Jen

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21 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

One thing to be aware of. The fan blades, motor, shroud, grill, supports and so on will reduce the area available for ventilation when the fan is off. If your high level ventilation is a bit borderline for the boat safety scheme requirements, then adding an electric fan, solar, or otherwise may be a problem at the next inspection. The inspectors don't take account of the air flow with the fan running, only what ventilation area is available with it stopped. You may need to cut an extra roof vent in the to keep within the requirements. Depends on your BSS bod and how eagle eyed they are and officious they are feeling on the day.

Only advisory anyhow for the majority of us so the BSS bod can't fail the boat on it but only give you advice.  Hire boats different tho as it's a mandatory requirement.

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6 minutes ago, Robbo said:

Only advisory anyhow for the majority of us so the BSS bod can't fail the boat on it but only give you advice.  Hire boats different tho as it's a mandatory requirement.

Yes, just read the BSS sections again. For private boats it is advisory unless it is less than 50% of the calculated requirement for ventilation, or there is not enough air coming in for appliances with continuous burning flames as far as I can make out (section 8.9.1 and appendix A). Any actual BSS people can say for sure?

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On 07/11/2017 at 13:05, ALAN DENMAN said:

... that works both on solar and battery back up? 

 

If it's being powered from the 12V domestic batteries there's no need to go for an individual power source when you already have a comparative abundance of additional power sources - including shore supply, domestic alternator and solar if you so choose. A quick look reveals that pukka 12V boat bathroom fan with light as sold by Force 4 chandlers for 49 quid (I'm sure cheaper ones with or without the light are available) uses just 2.4 watts for the fan. Add a 1 watt led lamp and you're up to 3.4 watts. That's about 1/3 of an Amp being drawn so even if you bathed with the Flying Scotsman instead of a rubber duck and it took 3 hours for the all the steam to clear,  it would only tax your batteries by 1 Amp hour.

You already know your battery electrons are the right type too - unless every time you press your horn everything goes quiet! ;)

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