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solar power Whole house fans ?

D

Drew Cutter

Jan 1, 1970
0
Is there such a thing ? All i can find is DC ceiling fans.
 
P

Paul

Jan 1, 1970
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Drew Cutter said:
Is there such a thing ? All i can find is DC ceiling fans.

By whole house fan I assume you mean the central blower for your forced air.
I have never seen a solar powered one nor a DC one. But if your blower is
belt driven you could replace the AC motor with a DC motor or drive the
AC motor with a DC to AC inverter. You can look at the HVAC equipment
at grainger to get an idea.

www.grainger.com
 
D

Drew Cutter

Jan 1, 1970
0
Steve

Any recommendation on DC motor ? what other hardware would i need ? I
read where i can save between 15 and 55 % on my ac bill.
 
S

Steve Spence

Jan 1, 1970
0
Drew said:
Steve

Any recommendation on DC motor ? what other hardware would i need ? I
read where i can save between 15 and 55 % on my ac bill.

A dc motor will save you about 8 - 10% efficiency over a ac motor and
inverter. But the wiring sizes will kill you. Stick with AC.
 
P

Paul

Jan 1, 1970
0
Steve Spence said:
A dc motor will save you about 8 - 10% efficiency over a ac motor and
inverter. But the wiring sizes will kill you. Stick with AC.


--
Steve Spence
Dir., Green Trust, http://www.green-trust.org
Contributing Editor, http://www.off-grid.net
http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn.html

If you HAVE to have solar power for your whole house fan,
you could put any of the fans Steve sent links for or your central
forced air blower on a separate circuit and use an inverter from
a battery bank charged by solar cells. But I do not know why
you would want to do this. Central forced air blowers do not take
that much power.
 
D

Drew Cutter

Jan 1, 1970
0
From doing my research its not possible to do solar for the whole house
fan. But , i can use solar for the attic fan. Directly above the whole
house fan or in the gables ?
 
S

Steve Spence

Jan 1, 1970
0
Drew said:
From doing my research its not possible to do solar for the whole house
fan. But , i can use solar for the attic fan. Directly above the whole
house fan or in the gables ?

why do you say that? of course it's possible. How much do you want to spend?
 
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Paul

Jan 1, 1970
0
Drew Cutter said:
From doing my research its not possible to do solar for the whole house
fan. But , i can use solar for the attic fan. Directly above the whole
house fan or in the gables ?
It all depends on what you want to do.
Here is a solar powered attic gable fan.
http://www.airvent.com/homeowner/products/powerVents-solarGable.shtml
I think we discussed in the past that if you use solar PV and Netmetering
you are offsetting power that you use for blowers and AC.
 
D

Drew Cutter

Jan 1, 1970
0
I like the idea of using net metering. Lowes carries the airvent brand .
I'm guessing that the solar would be special order. Would you place
the net metering near the controls for the whole house fan ? Somebody
mention on the other newsgroup that the attic fan motor need to be
replace because of the heat every 2 or 3 years ?
 
P

Paul

Jan 1, 1970
0
Drew Cutter said:
I like the idea of using net metering. Lowes carries the airvent brand .
I'm guessing that the solar would be special order. Would you place the net
metering near the controls for the whole house fan ? Somebody mention on
the other newsgroup that the attic fan motor need to be replace because of
the heat every 2 or 3 years ?
Netmetering is on your house meter. It subtracts what your solar generates
from what your house uses. As far as the motor in the attic gable fans, I
would
imagine that it does get pretty hot up there. The attic fans have
thermostats so
that they turn on at a preset attic temperature. You would have to contact
the
Airvent people and find out what warrantee they offer and contact Lowes to
see if the solar model is special order.
 
G

George Ghio

Jan 1, 1970
0
Steve said:
A dc motor will save you about 8 - 10% efficiency over a ac motor and
inverter. But the wiring sizes will kill you. Stick with AC.
Now here is a great insight. It would appear that the on going costs of
DC rated wire are prohibitive.

Begs the question of "What are the on going costs for AC rated wire?"

I wired my house for 12V, power and lighting. Yes it cost a bit more.
Certainly didn't break the bank.

I also ran the 240V wiring, it didn't break the bank either.

Is America becoming a nation of penny pinching mono maniacs?

Want a 12 or 24 V motor? Just follow the governments lead, mug an old
lady in an electric wheel chair and take the motors. Soft target, two
free motors. And as a bonus you get a couple of very nice worm drive
gear boxs to play with.

A friend runs his lathe on a wheel chair motor.

America was built by people who did things because they did not know
that those things were impossible.

What's the matter with you lot?

It's not that hard to find DC motors.

You come here and ask for things rather than go and look.

Scrap yards are much more fun than Walmart.
 
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