Solar Vent

[Star152]

Has anyone used a solar vent like this one? I'm thinking of installing one in my camper.....to avoid mold and mildew..........

 

[Brian]

Solar vent....

There was a thread on those a while back and the general feeling I got was that they were not worth the $, esp. regarding longevity. Maybe you can search for it and see what was said.

I have seen them used by some happy campers in the tropics though. Yasha and Juergen have one in their Bigfoot:



I am going with a Fatastic vent fan meself....
Brian

 

[chnlisle]

I've used them on sail boats and have never been happy with them. They seem to work fine as long as the sun is shining. The flat dont work at night. At least thats my experience and the experience of other boaters I know.

 

[Marc]

I too have used them on sailboats and IMHO are a POS.

Marc

 

[craig333]

hmmm, i bet you can find a small 12v fan that would do the trick. You aren't talking that much airflow just to prevent mildew. Something like a computer case fan that only draws a few milliamps you could use and shouldn't draw the battery down much over a couple days. If it sits longer you should probably have a small charger on the battery anyway.

 

[HERR42]

one of those fans could run for over a month on a big battery.
a 12v fan with a resistor to drop it to 6v would run it nice and slow....but still move adequate air.

 

[chnlisle]

Those solar vent fans aint cheap. My guess is the fantastic fan is about the same price. One of the things I did on my boats was to leave a light on in side the cabin. A 100W bulb produced enough heat to keep the mildew away and things fresh. I've also used a small ceramic heater from WalFart. Just a tiny little thing for about $20. It had a thermostat and a shut off if it tipped over. Marc what do you think? did you use any of these methods.

 

[Marc]

Jay,

I always used the light bulb method and it seemed to work pretty darn well. On some of the big racing yachts I use to crew on and deliver we used a dehumidifier due to the fact that there were often wet sails and running rigging left aboard frequently.

Marc

 

[davinski]

These are very interesting discussions. One day I had the idea to take the fantastic vent cover, replace or modify it with a small array of solar cells, then hook this up to a very small "computer" fan that was attached to the Fantastic vent arms that hold the motor. I don't think the solar cells could ever produce enough power to run the stock motor, but a small second motor, run only on solar, could vent the camper when the sun is out. Crank the cover, moisture away!

What do you guys think?

Dave

 

[chnlisle]

Marc has a good point on the dehumidfier. On my J24 I used one. They're pricey but on a racing boat any edge you can get is a good one and when you're paying 5+ grand a year for sails $200 seems like a small price to pay. But the light bulb method works very well if you have AC.

 

[Star152]

Good idea with the light blub.....I found thesolar vent for $59.00.....here is the link..
http://store.sundancesolar.com/sunsolpowven.html it is alway foggy in the area I thought this would help and no additional power concerns......