Solar power panel for shed fan

Hi Lori,

Thanks for that heads up on the charger - had been looking at this 25w starter kit with a non lcd charger, but can buy just the panel and the charger you show for almost the same price.
Is the brand name Eco-Worthy used in Canada and if so would you say ok or avoid ?
25W 12V Polycrystalline Solar Panel Trickle Charger Kit

Afraid search as we may , cannot find a UK stockist for those little ceiling fans, all from China taking about a month +.

 

Oh @ricky101 that looks dandy! I've never heard of Eco-worthy but as a measurement of quality, I look at the warranty period. All of my panels are warranteed for 25 years. That said doesn't mean the company will still be around but I haven't had any fail. @shiney has panels on a large scale and he can probably tell you if he's had to have any replaced in all the years that he has had them.

Yes, my fans came from China and they got here in two weeks even though they guessed at 6. I also got my timers from there too. The reason I have the fans on timers is because running them solid with no breaks could lead to overheating and burn the unit out in record time. Plus, I can run more than one unit off of a single panel. Just split the power cable and run them alternately.

 

Yes, all of these panels are pv - most of mine crystalline like yours and a couple are amorphous. The only difference between yours and mine are the size and the mounting system. I was just referring to the fact that you've had yours a long time and would know if any needed replacing in that time span.

My oldest panel is about 12 years old.. I think. They are all still putting out the same power as new, at least that's what my meter tells me.

 

This demonstrates the efficacy of a pv/battery setup. These fans and lights will run non stop through the night if I didn't have the timers set to shut them down at a reasonable hour.

 

Hi @CanadianLori

Have ordered one of those ceiling fans but will be a few weeks from China.

Also ordered one of these little solar kits which was uk stocked and just arived.
Not sure how good the panel is, its rated at 80w yet the other panels I was looking were only 25w yet cost more than this whole kit ?
Not sure if its because they are metal frames and glass vs these mono plastic ones ?

Have done an indoor hook up and used some led strips to 'power' the solar panel to check its all working, which its seems to. Hopefully might get some sunshine tomorrow, been totally overcast for the last few days.

One thing you might know, in the pics below you can see some of the controllers have a V% and A but mine just seems to have the V option.
Wondered in the A is used on your controller and if you use that to see how much current the panel is actually producing or do you just go on the panel and battery voltages and battery icon ?
Also the Solar Arrow Icon steadily flashes away when the panel is working, does that ever change?

Strange but cannot find any 12" 'server' fans like yours here in the uk, at a sensible price, but can get this type of large bladed fan up to 8" which I already use and find they give a good wide flow.

Been trying to work out the best angle to position the panel seems between 30 and 60deg according to the time of year.
Seem to remember someone was making a solar panel tracker, wonder if they ever finished it ?


Panel just 11" x 11"




Some pics of these controller show the V% and AH but not on ours and not all blue ones.



Use a little voltage regulator with this fan to control its speed as needed

 

I have a couple of those desk top fans too. Your panel will run quite a bit. The biggest panel I have is only 40watts. About 3 amps total @12v.

The name on my server fans is "CoolerMaster" and I remeber the second time I ordered them I had to use that name to find them.

When you get the controller it will give you instructions, although very vague, on how to change the settings. I've only ever let the server fans rip at high speed . Even directly wired to the panels for dsytime use. No timers. I figured if they run on servers 24/7, then during cloudy days, they'll get a rest whether they need it or not and at night the timers turn them off around 9:30. No point in running them all night unless the heater is running.

The overhead fans are on timers. They just go at full rip because they too are hooked up to the solar panels "directly" through the timers. Pedal to the metal!

My server fans have outlasted every other fan I've bought but they only keep the aired stirred and not the plants shaken i suppose if I didn't have them at the peak and down closer to the plants they would keep the bugs off but I did find that continually fanning the plants can cause serious drying so again, no point in doing that.

You can make tat panel multitask. In between running fans, it can pump water.

 

Forgot to mention that I learned a lesson the hard way regarding those connectors at the end of the solar panel cable, every time you add an extension with the same hook ups, the darned thing reverse poles. I've got rd connected to black and the reverse in a lot of my setup.

I wasted time thinking I had a poor connection before I figured that one out. Amazing what a good meter will tell you..