After doing a great deal of research, I'm back to square one and hope that someone here can give me a little technical advice.
I'm in the process of putting together a small solar panel project involving a "special situation" attic ventilation problem. I could use a small 120v fan, but after my next door neighbor's attic caught on fire due to a defective 120v attic ventilation fan...I'm a little leery, even though I know the odds are a million to one, of going a similar route. An attic is a really bad place to have sparks flying around. I would prefer to go solar with this project.
Basically, what I'm trying to do is match up a 12v solar panel with a reliable 12v fan such as a typical 120mm "double bearing" server fan.
The panel is a small 12v unit rated at 4.5 watts with a voltage voc of 18v and a current ISC of 250ma.
I've looked at more 12v fans than I care to think about over the last few days and their v/w/a ratings are all over the place.
I'm at a complete loss as to matching up a fan that can take the current extremes generated by the panel mentioned above without being damaged and without involving complicated battery/circuitry control arrangements. I'm concerned that a sunny day might cause a fan to "over-rev" and burn out the bearings. Since it won't be hooked to a computer, I have no way of controlling the rpm's.
If the fan fails...what happens to the current generated by the panel? Could it cause the wiring in the fan to overheat and catch fire? Or am I just being overcautious?
Does anyone have any suggestions to offer? Or should I just forget the whole idea and head over to Home Depot and buy a 120v fan after all?
