Solar Powered Blower

[jldunn]

I was looking into putting a solar powered vent fan into my wood shed and stumbled across an idea.

http://www.solarexpert.com/Generators/swpowergen.html

I'm thinking of maybe getting a solar powered generator (battery pack with AC inverter), putting the solar panel in my window, and plugging the blower on my wood stove into it. I thought it might also be useful for powering a portable space heater for my shed.

Anyone have any experience with using solar or something like this?

It's an expensive toy, but if it lasts long enough maybe it would eventually pay for itself?

 

[velvetfoot]

I'm no expert but the fan on my blower draws about 40 watts at half speed or so.
I can't see a space heater at what, 1000 watts +.
It's not super sunny where you are is it? (I lived in Oswego for a while )

 

[jldunn]

It's definitely not the sunniest place on earth, but it gets light enough to see outside pretty much every day, so that should be enough to store some away in a battery I imagine. That and I can put the solar panel under a light that I'm using during the evening to recapture some of that wasted energy.

Perhaps I could rig up a small fan as a wind turbine and mount it above my fiancee's mouth while she sleeps. Convert wasted energy from her snoring into heat for her feet.

 

[velvetfoot]

You could pack your car's trunk full of those babies and charge them up on the drive to and from work. Then plug in your stuff when you get home.
As a followup to the other technology, you could put a rotating spoiler on that same trunk's lid and hook it up to a generator, to charge those babies up even more!

 

[Rhone]

I'd ditch the AC blower and get a DC one if you want to have a useful one. The blower in my insert uses around 110 watts (it's like a 110 watt light bulb), and using a battery with an AC converter I figured it out once that I could run my blowers on battery for less than 20 minutes before it would be absolutely dead. Now, if I got a 12v DC blower now that's a different story. I could probably run a DC one for about 6-8 hours off the same battery.

If you want to find a 12v DC blower, go to your local junk yard and look for 1973+ Super Beetles. You can tell a Super beetle from a regular beetle a few ways. If looking from the back, if the tail lights are perfectly round & all plastic you've got the right year and potential super beetle. Otherwise, from the front the main one is that a regular beetle has its spare tire verticle in the trunk a Super Beetle has it flat. In the trunk (which is in the front) you'll see a 12v DC blower (you may have to remove a cover) that is quiet, and has a lot of power, and probably working as good as the day it was made those blowers were nearly indestructible right at the dash board. Grab yourself a couple, each car has only one and build from there my friend. The blowers were 2 speed also, that's an extra bonus.

If you look at this from the back, you can see the tailights are perfectly round and all plastic so you know you've got at least a 1973+ there and check the trunk in the front, chances are it will be a super beetle.

If you look at this one from the back no round tail lights and they're part metal part plastic. Very unlikely to be a super beetle and you've got a 1972 or older.

 

[Homefire]

It's an expensive toy, but if it lasts long enough maybe it would eventually pay for itself?

I saw a solor charger at BJ's (I love that name ) for 39 bucks in the automotive section.
Seems that would work with a battery and an old heater fan unit . You could pick that up
from the Pick and Pull in Auburn.
good luck.

I think your best bet would be roof vents cut in the wood shed.

 

[nshif]

If you install a 12V blower (best solar option ) and still want to run it off of 110V when the power is on you will need a 110v Ac to 12 V DC transformer with the proper amp or watt output.

 

[mikenr1c]

I was thinking that you could put the collector under a light that you power from the battery. Then you would be independent of the sunlight. What do you think? - Mike

 

[Gunner]

I suprised that someone has not made a heatpowered blower for inserts like the ecofan, I'm sure the principles could be incorperated. No electricity, turns on and off with heat, quiet. Why not?????

 

[begreen]

Probably due to the limited market and wide varations amongst inserts. With a freestanding stove you just plunk it on the top. Inserts present a much more complex problem with locating and attaching the thermoelectric module, wiring to the fans, fan attachment and location, etc.

 

[Andre B.]

I suprised that someone has not made a heatpowered blower for inserts like the ecofan, I'm sure the principles could be incorperated. No electricity, turns on and off with heat, quiet. Why not?????

They have. Just have not been marketed much $$$.

Newer silicon based stuff.
(broken link removed to http://www.hi-z.com/websit06.htm)

Some older info on thermo electric stuff.
http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/POWER/thermoelectric/thermoelectric.htm

There are some units that are used for cathodic protection on oil wells, pipe lines and such, used in places where no matter what the cost of the unit it is insignificant to the benefit of the corrosion protection.

I have also been told that some older RV campers have propane fired furnaces with a thermoelectric module to power the blower, but I have yet to see one.

The big problem with using the silicon modules with a wood stove is that they are easily damaged by temperatures that are easily reached on a stove. But to get the most power out of them you want the temperature difference across the module as great as possible and how cold low side temperature can stay is limited by the air temperature near the stove.
The older stuff is not as easily damaged but is also of much lower power density and efficiency.

My Ecofan, I have only been using it this winter, is already running noticeably slower then it did when new do to getting it too close to where the hot air comes out of the back step during a higher temp burn.

I really want a good quality Stirling fan.
Something like this one, I just don't like the look of that one enough.
(broken link removed)

I have an idea for building one right into the stove, just need to find the time.
It requires drilling two 2 inch holes thru the top step back near the smoke pipe so stove will be out of operation for a while.

 

[Gooserider]

Look at power requirements - you can get a blower or a small tool for a while, no problem. You don't have enough power for any sort of heater, you will blow fuses on that unit, not to mention the problem with the short run-time you'd have.

As to tapping into the power put out by a lightbulb - sorry, a PV panel needs solar power to work effectively, light bulbs just don't put out enough power to drive anything more than a calculator or other negligible draw item. (not to mention the perpetual motion problem)

Gooserider