Cabin Fans

[colemj]

The small pocket inverters create an overhead of around 0.25 amp over the draw of the load. Whether that is considerably more power is dependent on your battery capacity and energy tolerance. If you operate it 24hrs/day, it will draw an additional 6Ahr out of your bank.

For us, using them to power short-time loads like our TV/DVD set makes more sense and gives us more options than finding, and paying more $$, for a lower quality 12V equivalent.

Similarly, you may find AC powered fans to be cheaper and have better performance than DC powered ones. Depending on your tolerance for power draw, you may find using a small inverter advantageous.

Mark

[cantxsailor]

I have one of the O2COOL fans bought at Walgreens. At $20 its great. I had a Hella but found it was more noisy than it should have been. The O2COOL that had fires are the indoor/outdoor model that is 110v only I think. The one I have has a 110/12v transformer plug but also can use 4 "D" size batteries. I bought a Radio Shack cigarette lighter style plug with the correct plug end to fit the fan for about $6. It seems to work great and I can't imagine how it would catch fire. Even without a fuse the wires are so small I would think they would fry off before ever getting hot enough to ignite anything. Of course it IS fused just in case..........m

[mikereed100]

Originally Posted by slowshoes

So when your hardwiring fans throughout your boat, do you run all new wire for the fans or can you tap into existing circuits. Pretty much everywhere I would want a fan on my boat, there is a reading light close by - could I tap into the wiring for the lights.

Speaking of fuses, if you wire the fan into an existing circuit be sure it has it's own fuse. If the motor jams for some reason it could cause a fire if it is not fused.

Mike