Dennis and Ken and others who replied; I use the trucker fans. I keep two on the dash, bolted to some big old harbor freight grounding magnets that let me stick them anywhere there's metal in the van, including inside the B and C pillars. But I was looking for something that would hang on the pop-up mechanism bar and pull a lot of air through the front screen and out of the van (on a Westy of course). I also use two window-mounted 4 inch computer fans. They run all night without bothering the battery, but of course they are intended for removing cooking fumes and moving air through the cabin when my Wave 3 heater is in use. They don't do any cooling to speak of. I looked at that Coleman fan at a Coleman store, they had it and another one that looked pretty good, that's what got me thinking about the big fans. I also found this Endless Breeze 12V fan for more money http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/rv-converters/12-volt-fans.htm but needs no conversion. I like the amount of air that an $11 box fan moves, but it seems not worth the battery hassle. My inverter runs such a box fan for an hour from a little 275 amp lawnmower battery that's got some age on it, that's what got me wondering what it would take to run the thing all night. Good to know the issues behind the problem anyway. Thanks. Jim On Jun 20, 2006, at 4:21 PM, Kenneth Lewis wrote: > The inverter itself will draw it's share of current, even with > nothing > plugged into it. So you need to take that into account also, I > would hazard > to guess about 1.5 amps. The amount depends on it's rating i.e. a > 1000 watt > will draw more than a 400w , at idle. I would 'assume' the > efficiency would > go up the closer to the rated load you run. I say assume because that > applies for large, entire building, commercial units. > If it was me, I would do some math beforehand, and try and > purchase a > unit that is close to what I needed, say 25% over. > In this case I agree with Dennis, the twelve volt trucker fan is > probably the ticket. Coleman sells a couple D cell powered tent > fans that > are worth looking at. Wally World carries them. > This one looks like it could be easily converted to twelve volts. > > http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colemancom/detail.asp? > product_id=830-450 > > Ken Lewis > http://neksiwel.20m.com/ > |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.