Solar powered vents any good?

Cardo

Cardo

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www.yacht-tinkerbell.co.uk
We have one of those standard vents above the galley. Whilst I'm sure some air passes through it, it's passive and I doubt it creates much airflow.
I was looking at one of these kits:
http://www.force4.co.uk/1448/Ventilite-Ventilite-SOLAR-FAN-KIT.html
I figure any movement of air from the galley area would be a good idea, especially when we head off to the Med.
Do they work?
 
Cardo said:
We have one of those standard vents above the galley. Whilst I'm sure some air passes through it, it's passive and I doubt it creates much airflow.
I was looking at one of these kits:
http://www.force4.co.uk/1448/Ventilite-Ventilite-SOLAR-FAN-KIT.html
I figure any movement of air from the galley area would be a good idea, especially when we head off to the Med.
Do they work?
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Been discussed on here several times. Opinions have varied from one extreme to the other!
 
Cardo said:
We have one of those standard vents above the galley. Whilst I'm sure some air passes through it, it's passive and I doubt it creates much airflow.
I was looking at one of these kits:
http://www.force4.co.uk/1448/Ventilite-Ventilite-SOLAR-FAN-KIT.html
I figure any movement of air from the galley area would be a good idea, especially when we head off to the Med.
Do they work?
Click to expand...

I very much fall in to the 'great little item' camp. What a difference at keeping the boat dry and fresh while you are not there. Rip off expensive though for what you get.
 
The solar powered vents are good.... Though expensive....and if it has a nicad battery...the battery will eventually go bad, and they aren't cheap either.

On our sailboat, and on our current trawler I elected to use the Vetus fan that is 12VDC. It moves a tremendous amount of air, and has two speeds. Easy to install, easy to wire up if you have a power source close by....
 
Brilliant when working but that's often not for long, if not too concerned about power draw I like the E C Smith two speed one which has bothl exhaust and inlet settings.
 
David2452 said:
Brilliant when working but that's often not for long, if not too concerned about power draw I like the E C Smith two speed one which has bothl exhaust and inlet settings.
Click to expand...

I have the ESC two speed fan in the heads. It's blasted noisy (I think the bearings have gone, but a replacement fan is ludicrously expensive!) and it also munches the amps.
I quite like the idea of the solar powered vent as it's passive and would hopefully remove hot, humid air from the galley area.
 
ukmctc said:
had two of these fitted for the last couple of years and I have to say, " don't bother" they work well for a year or so then slowly start to fail. you are better with standard vents or funnel vents.
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I had one of these on my last boat. It wasn't working when I had the pre-purchase survey and the surveyor (who writes on this forum from time to time) commented that in his experience they don't last very long. I removed the fan to see if I could repair it (I think it was the solar panel that wasn't working) but couldn't source a replacement. Mine didn't have a battery so only ran during the day. I retained the vent fitting. I believe that the modern ones are more reliable but would check to see how 'maintainable' they are before fitting one.
 
I had a solar vent - a day and night job with a nicad, a type not made any more - above my fuel tank, the salesman swore to me that it was ' spark safe '.

It failed at about 12.00001 months - first the bearing went and it was very noisy, then it stopped completely - and when I gave it to a very good electrician chum to try to sort, he assured me it was more like a spark generator, so I'm lucky not to be in orbit !

As for the job mentioned which fits into an EC Smith tannoy vent, one thing is that it will block the small amount of light which comes through, also check if it can go in the closeable version of tannoy vents, it always amazes me the version one can close off in heavy weather isn't standard.
 
I use a small solar panel connected to a 12 volt lorry dashboard fan, with the fan fitted to a bulkhead it circulates air when the sun shines,works well.
 
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