Help!
#1
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Help!
Hi
I've bought a 1993 E350 van and am planning to travel in it for a while. I'm not yet up to installing a full electrical system but have a dilemma because I need to run a 1.4W 12vdc fan 24hours a day. I'm wondering what is the best way to do this. Does anyone have any suggestions? A friend has suggested that I use the car battery during the night and a solar panel during the day. I'm not sure but I'm guessing that this would drain the starter battery excessively and would shorten its life. Is that correct? AS for the solar panels - can they power an appliance directly or does it have to be routed through a battery?
Thanks.
I've bought a 1993 E350 van and am planning to travel in it for a while. I'm not yet up to installing a full electrical system but have a dilemma because I need to run a 1.4W 12vdc fan 24hours a day. I'm wondering what is the best way to do this. Does anyone have any suggestions? A friend has suggested that I use the car battery during the night and a solar panel during the day. I'm not sure but I'm guessing that this would drain the starter battery excessively and would shorten its life. Is that correct? AS for the solar panels - can they power an appliance directly or does it have to be routed through a battery?
Thanks.
#2
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the only solar options that I know of for vehicles usually just trickle charge the battery at a slow rate im sure there is more expensive solar options available that im unaware of a 1.4 watt fan only draws about .11 amps and some solar chargers probably put out about that much to charge the battery so it is an option or would atleast help keep the battery up during the day if its not to cloudy out.
the real question is how long would the vehicle ever go without running the engine and recharging the battery, as a small fan that only draws .11 amps is not going to run the battery dead very quick and you could run dual batteries in parrallel that would basicly double the amount of time that you could go between starting the engine to recharge the batteries.
the real question is how long would the vehicle ever go without running the engine and recharging the battery, as a small fan that only draws .11 amps is not going to run the battery dead very quick and you could run dual batteries in parrallel that would basicly double the amount of time that you could go between starting the engine to recharge the batteries.
#3
run the fan off an isolated battery or use a switch to isolate from the start battery. my dual setup used a starter solonoid. with ignition off, the backup battery was not connected to the system. hence you could run the main start battery down without draining the backup. you would reverse the setup and run the fan off the backup so your start battery would always be up to snuff