Simple Fan Setup

[jonyjoe303]

for ventilation I actually cut 4 inch rectangular holes in the rear of my small astrovan, I originally cut 6 inch round holes but covered those up. You can get a cordless jigsaw at harbor freight for 30 dollars that will do quick work of cutting a hole. This way all my windows are closed. Thats the only way I get air in my van. It is very stealth, I even have 3 roof vents, one with a vortex 3 amp fan but I usually keep them closed. I do notice with the roof vent fan running in reverse I get good air movement in the van. But if the air outside is hot, you getting hot air in the van. The way I look at it, if you have any windows open you defeat the stealth. The vent I bought at home depot for 3 dollars, you can paint it to match your van. 4 inch is the same size as a 120mm fan.


On cool days a small fan might work if you have good insulation on your van. On hot days you do need a swamp cooler, thats what I use and they run on 2x120mm computer cooling fans. Both fans running might consume 3 amps. A fantastic fan might work (i do have one which I rarely use) but it only pushes air, if the air is hot, you wont get much cooling unless you run it at high speed. At night I just use a more effiecient and silent 120mm fan (it uses about .5 amps).

The small lithium jump packs are usually 11.1 volts 3 amp hour battery. So it wont run most fans that long. The larger agm type jump packs, like they sell at harbor freight have a 18 amp hour 12 volt agm battery. Those batteries you cant drain below 50 percent (they only give you 9 amps of usable power).

In the past 3 years I done everything possible to stay cool in my van, I got holes all over my roof, holes on the side of the van. I even tried the leaving my windows open. Roof vents with and without fans, the endless breeze fantastic fan, also tried the 10 inch radiator electric fans, the only thing that work was 1 inch thick foam insulation on the roof and windows and my swampcooler. Once you cut the first hole in your van, the rest are easy.