12 volt or 240 volt fans

J

johnf

Well-Known Member
Joined
1 Jan 2006
Messages
142
Location
Windlesham Surrey
Visit site
Hi I keep my yacht in southern spain and in the height of summer it gets very hot for sleeping. I have some rather poor 12volt fans that are noisy and am considering investing in about 5 better quality fans for use when at anchor. I am thinking about the caframa 12 volt or alternatively have seen much cheaper 240 volt fans which are also quiet. I have a powerful invertor but am not sure whether it will use a lot more power to run the 240 volt fans throught the invertor rather than the 12 volts one. Any advice appreciated
 
johnf said:
Hi I keep my yacht in southern spain and in the height of summer it gets very hot for sleeping. I have some rather poor 12volt fans that are noisy and am considering investing in about 5 better quality fans for use when at anchor. I am thinking about the caframa 12 volt or alternatively have seen much cheaper 240 volt fans which are also quiet. I have a powerful invertor but am not sure whether it will use a lot more power to run the 240 volt fans throught the invertor rather than the 12 volts one. Any advice appreciated
Click to expand...

In Greece this year we were confined to our berth for a couple of weeks for medical reasons. It was very hot, we had shorepower, so we bought a 230 volt fan. It was extremely effective. As our supply is metered we watched the consumption closely but after a while realised that it was so small that we just left the fan on 24/7. I can't tell you the consumption in watts but if you have a good battery bank and solar panels I suggest that a 230 volt fan is worth trying.
 
Inverters

You also need to check how much power the inverter is using . It will add a little to the fan consumption . Depends how good it is .
 
I have plenty of experience trying to keep cool at anchor in the med and can tell you without doubt that running five 240v fans from an inverter will flatten your batteries in no time at all especially if you are trying to run a fridge as well. A wind scoop and some really low power fans are what you want.
 
been on to the Dyson help line support.

they say that the fans use between 65 and 40 watts, and the Air Multiplier system magnifies this by between 16 and 18 times !

Now that means (or they want it to mean - which is a very different thing !) that the Dyson fan is equivalent to a normal one of between 640 and 1100 watts. And that is a hell of a lot of power being saved !
 
sarabande said:
Does anyone have one of the new Dyson 'bladeless' fans ?
Click to expand...

Our project manager at work has one. It's a minor tourist attraction in the office with little groups of people from other teams coming to gawk at it :-)

I haven't noticed it being particularly noisy.

Most of the air comes straight through from behind it, so I don't think it would work well built into something like a locker front, only something like a partition with lots of free air space behind.

Pete
 
Because I am in the process of also installing some fans in my boat (in the Med), yes the 240V are definately much better but expect them to be in the range of 30-60W, meaning 2.5 to 5 amp each one. That is too much. It only makes sense to use them if you have a generator (or shore power).
I bought two little hellas and will buy another two turbo 12V hella fans. Their consumption is around 0,4-0,5 amp which is OK.
 
I have two of the fans that come from industrial freezer units to distribute the cold air. They have been running continuously for years without problems. They are bulkhead fixing so have a frame that you can bolt down
 
caframo fans= .4 amps yes 4/10ths..

we just installed 4 caframo fans running off 12v on our boat to beat 99 degree heat. did 2 different models for a test: the Bora a 3 speed fan and the scirocco a 3 speed fan with automatic 2 4 6 or 8 hr timer switch. incredibly quiet fans, fan draw at low speed was 2/10 of one amp on the bora . what an improvement over the old noisy cheap beasts we used to have.

we have a generator but it's too noisy to run to keep AC on. now in the hottest of nights 99 degrees and 85% humidity the fans kept us comfortable. 1 each sleeping cabin , 1 in galley, 1 in main saloon. so pleased i am now going to get a bora for the head, so it can air out the attached wet locker and/or clear out the moisture after a shower.

it would be worth checking out...
 
Inverters and fans

240V electric fans are all induction motors. They are usually of modest power and work well. However unless you have a true sine wave inverter the fan motor will be very inefficient running on the modified square wave or modified sine wave. This added to the inefficiency of the inverter will mean large battery drain.
I think you might find the answer is 240v Ac fan for when connected to shore power and 12v fan for on battery. There are some great little 12v fans now available built for computers and electronics but obviouslt with much less air movement than a big 240v one. good luck olewill
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top