SOLAR POWERED STAINLESS ROOF VENT

[NikaVinyl]

Does anyone know if in this grey weather if a solar power mushroom vent will spin I was led to believe that they only need daylight but mine don't spin.

I contacted the company very big well known chandlers and they sent me another one, I installed it and same problem and made a video and sent it to them and they sent me another one and guess what same thing, so I have 3 now fair play to the company but I'd sooner just have the one that works as per my other thread I want to vent my boat a lot better.

A friend has one of these vents a lot older different make and it works in just daylight.

[WotEver]

Why not fit a 12v one then you can have a shower in the evening too?

[NikaVinyl]

5 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Why not fit a 12v one then you can have a shower in the evening too?

I just took one of them apart and have connected a AA battery to it and it's been spinning for about 2 hours now, maybe I could do this, there is no info on the motor as to the volts/watts so I need make sure of its safety if this works I will put another on the boat and add a switch to them and run off these batters, I think 12v might be to much though.

Edited November 20, 2017 by marji

[WotEver]

I didn’t mean run that one at 12V. It’s probably a 2V fan.  

[NikaVinyl]

1 minute ago, WotEver said:

I didn’t mean run that one at 12V. It’s probably a 2V fan.  

I might take the motor to maplins and see if they can figure it out, I was thinking around 5v and I will look for a 12 volt one.

[Nickhlx]

If you disconnect the panel from the motor and expose to daylight, a meter will give you the output voltage which will be about the same in almost any daylight intensity.   Each solar cell bank is about 0.5 volts and its likely the motor will be tolerant of a volt or so overvoltage....  or if the motor only consumes very low power, running off a small battery, even rechargeable cells, might be easiest to do ?

This grey weather though is a killer for PV - we have a 7500 watt system on the house and whilst it produces up to 52 kwH a day in May/June, at the moent it is producing around 1.5 kWh/day  and the daily consumption from the grid is correspondingly higher 

Nick

Edited November 20, 2017 by Nickhlx

[WotEver]

1 hour ago, Nickhlx said:

If you disconnect the panel from the motor and expose to daylight, a meter will give you the output voltage which will be about the same in almost any daylight intensity.   Each solar cell bank is about 0.5 volts and its likely the motor will be tolerant of a volt or so overvoltage....  or if the motor only consumes very low power, running off a small battery, even rechargeable cells, might be easiest to do ?

Solar garden lights generally have three solar cells and a single rechargeable NiCad. It strikes me as probable that a solar vent is likely to operate at the same voltage. 

1 hour ago, Nickhlx said:

we have a 7500 watt system on the house and whilst it produces up to 52 kwH a day in May/June, at the moent it is producing around 1.5 kWh/day  and the daily consumption from the grid is correspondingly higher 

We have 4kW and today it couldn’t keep up with a couple of LED lamps, a PC on standby and a slow cooker. 

[Iain_S]

Several years ago, I bought one that fitted into an SOS roof vent. It came with a new clear plastic part for the actual vent, and worked for about a year, after which it stopped working. Cured temporarily by replacing the clear plastic window, but a few months later was less effective than an Ecofan. I managed to get it going by skimming the plastic, and polishing it, but it failed soon after, at which point I took it apart. Open circuit voltage on the panel was about 3V, which crashed as soon as it was connected to the motor. I connected a 1.5V battery to the motor, which promptly went open circuit, so probably too high a voltage applied!

Binned it after that, intending to fit a 12V computer fan as a replacement, but still waiting to get a round tewit  ....... 

[mrsmelly]

4 hours ago, WotEver said:

Solar garden lights generally have three solar cells and a single rechargeable NiCad. It strikes me as probable that a solar vent is likely to operate at the same voltage. 

We have 4kW and today it couldn’t keep up with a couple of LED lamps, a PC on standby and a slow cooker. 

Don't worry guys all is not lost!! Remember six months ago the government announced that in twenty years time all new cars will be electric powered so only nineteen and a half years to go and everything will be solar powered..............er or not!!

[NikaVinyl]

4 hours ago, Iain_S said:

 I connected a 1.5V battery to the motor, which promptly went open circuit, so probably too high a voltage applied!

 

I have it running on a 1.5V AA batt for about 11 hours now if its still running after 3 days I will mod the one on the boat wait a fews weeks if no problems I will add another blowing air in to create a air flow.