Ceiling fan questions

Fantastic has a great full function IR remote that comes with a wall bracket. If you go that way make sure you so with IR as cell sites can corrupt the UHF link on the RF remotes

Ductape wrote:
Maxxfans keep rain out without an extra cover. You can vent in the rain.

Is that only true with their super-deluxe version?

I thought I would not want to run fan in the rain, but now I realise it would be great for cooking!

Maxxfans keep rain out without an extra cover. You can vent in the rain.

Naio wrote:
Is there any reason I can't wire an on/off switch at some distance away, like by the bed?

Simply put: NO, No reason at all you can't do that..

HOWEVER
Fantastic fans (if that is what you have) come in two flavors
one has an automatic feature if a sensor gets wet, it shuts off and closes the lid,, the other kind (Which I have) does not have this feature, if it rains, it rains.. IN unless I get up and close the lid

IF you have the automatic kind... Well then you will need to run a 2 wire line from the unit to the bed in order to shut off the fan without disabling the auto-close

Or you can wire a full remote, but I don't know how to do that.

Wow, thanks for the details, landy! A bit advanced for me, i will have to reread carefully.

I use a usb fan in the window in daytime, in my current van, pointed in or out depending on sun angle, and that keeps things cool in about the bottom half of the van. Lower than the bed, but good for the daysleeping cat.

But without a roof vent I have routinely measured 110 degrees at bed height at 10:30am when it is about 60 outside and sunny.

New van already has a vent hole, which is unfortunately nowhere near the bed. I don't think I want to seal up that one and cut another...

I can reach the switches for my inline roof fans from bed, and the speed controller for the one fan from bed as well.

I force feed a 4 inch aperture with 2 inline counterrotating 120Mm fans through a step down ring, 4.75 to 4.0 inches.

One fan is a speed adjustable silverstone fm121, the other is an open frame Artic cool which rotates the opposite direction and blows into the silverstone, if I have it switched on. The Artic cool fan quietens the silverstone down a lot at higher rpms, and also increases airflow a lot.

The silverstone fan has a remote potentiometer for speed control. i just extended the wires to a spot I can reach from my bed or my 3rd chair.

If you have a bigger roof aperture, look into the silverstone fm 181 fan which is about 7 inches square.

https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-performance-speed-FM181-Silver/dp/B002M78L0A

It is practically silent at lowest speed and draws 0.09 amps and it still quiet at max speed and ~ 150CFM. It only draw 0.29 amps at max speed which I find impressive.

This is a fraction of the airflow of a fantastik fan at high speed, but also a fraction of the amperage and noise.

Silverstone has a significantly more powerful AP182 fan, but it is too sensitive to battery charging voltages at max speed. The hub gets stinky plastic hot. It draws 1.3 amps at max speed, but only 0.05a at slowest speed. I limited mine to 11 volts after the initial stinky plastic episode, and got about 18 months from it before something on circuit board gave up the magic blue smoke in my salt air environment. I now use the cheaper FM181 and rarely miss the more powerful flow of the AP182.

Together I estimate my roof fans on highest speed can move 140CFM. I have the fm181 as an intake fan in a side window. If I have all my fans and my reflectix window shades up, I can hang out in my van in direct sun as the interior temperature remains cooler until about noon then is about the same as ambient temperature until about 4 and then when ambients drop the interior can be slightly hotter than ambient for an hour or two.

No way would I be without a powered exhaust vent on the ceiling.

I will at some point be replacing the 7+ year old silverstone fm121 on my ceiling with a Noctua 3000 rpm industrial fan, whose speed I will control by the 4th PWM wire. It should be able to fight the restriction of my mushroom vent above it better than the silverstone fm121.

My mushroom vent is a 4" Nicro marine style vent I purchased in june 2001. It had a small solar panel and C size nicad battery, and moved 1000 cubic feet per hour. The fan motor and battery have been removed from it in an attempt to remove restrictions to airflow from the much more powerful computer fans.

No worries about rain with this vent.

Here is a mushroom vent:

https://www.vetus.com/ventilation/deck-ventilators/vetus-mushroom-ventilator-dartagn1-ss-incl-plastic-trim-ring.html

Here is the newer version of the mushroom vent i used, but later stripped out the fan motor battery guts to forcefeed with my 12v computer fans instead:

http://www.marinco.com/en/n20704s

Pretty hard to beat the airflow of a fantastik or maxair fan, but I am happy with my ventilation system in my Van, and not having to worry about rain

Hmmm... I see that the electric lid-opening function is only on the models with remotes, and I really want that. So much for the cheapest options.

Pretty much the only time I need a fan is when I am lying in bed late in the morning and the sun heats up the rig. In the daytime, I open the doors often enough that it stays cool in there. I want something I can engage without getting out of bed, and without leaving the vent open all night. Cold nights and sunny mornings, most places I camp.

Do I need a rain shroud? Are those only if I want to run the fan in the rain, or are they also to keep water out when driving with the fan shut?

Thank you, everyone, for the suggestions!

This is for a from-scratch build within an existing shell, so I will be running wires anyway. The shell has a hole for vent/fan, and no slides. But I appreciate the warning.

I think I'd prefer a switch over a remote... tho I could get fancy and do a 3way switch, bed and doorway.

I will go check out those other brands of fans you guys recommended.

And they can be gotten with remotes.

Do check out the Maxxfans. I like the low profile topside plus they are rainproof when open. We often leave one with the vent open all night to vent humidity and prevent sweating inside. Multiple modes; vent only, fan exhaust, fan in, ceiling fan, and thermostatically controlled.