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-   -   How to have an all night fan in the car? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/80968-how-have-all-night-fan-car.html)

Hi All,
I hope this thread addresses the concerns of all of us long distance travellers.
Most of us, when driving over long distances, either fail to find a suitable place for a night's sleep or prefer to rough it out at a roadside dhaba/petrol pump/toll booth etc and sleep in the car. During such rests, I turn on the ac for around 15 minutes to cool Hariya's cabin and then turn off the engine and sleep with the windows lowered by a few inches to get fresh air inside.
During summers or rains, the cabin warms up again within say an hour or two and I need to get up, turn the ac on for 15 minutes and go back to sleep.

If I were able to keep the fan/blower on for say, 4-5 hours, I would be able to sleep without getting up for that stretch of time but I m pretty sure that the stock 65AH battery wouldn't last that long rendering me powerless to start my car when I need to move again.


Is there a way to make the fan/blower last for around 5 hours and then be able to start the vehicle also or procure a low battery consumption fan which can be installed in the car and can be used for such purposes??

Ideas and inputs eagerly awaited....

i have done this already in my Gypsy.

I have fitted 2 90CFM fans borrowed from a Server Cabinet Venting system to the rear cabin. Dont remember the consumption specs offhand, but a back of the paper calculation done at the time showed that both of them running together at full speed would consume 9A in 8 hours.

Thank you very much for the info. Could you please elaborate on the fan that you have put viz; the cost, the source of purchase, the mounting, and the effects if possible.
It would be great if you could post some pictures as well.

I was just wondering where in a car, will you install such a fan.

@CAUGAR: Any pics of your installation?

PS: Getting such a fan running from the car battery would be easy - we can take power from the cig. lighter jack. I guess the challenge is to properly install it.

Alternatively - you could carry a second battery (easy if you have a second car) and run the fan off it without worrying about running out of juice on the main battery.

You can also carry a mosquito net and drape it over your car to keep out the bugs.

OT: I had a sleeping bag and have slept on the roof of the Bolero once next to a toll booth. No I didnt fall off :D

Hey thats a nice Idea. Will try it in my next trip.

in my city i've seen a small inverter which costs Rs.1100 and claims to run a small Fan for 4-6 hours. the fan is clamped above this small inverter and the fan is similar to what earlier we had clamped on OLD cars like ambassador and fiats.
I think that fan can work with car battery for long long hours.

Next time I visit that dense part of city i'll bring some pics and details along.

Devdath - I do just like you do - Just run the AC a bit on engine, then regular AC fans on battery. Works good for 4-5 hours IME. though my regular usage is mostly 1-2 hours ofc.

on the gypsy: the 2 fans are mounted onto the rear of the Hard Top one on each side bolted onto the vent that is provided on the Fibre top. I wanted one fan to pump in air and the other to pump out air. Unfortunately the fans i got are uni-directional.

Dont need a cigarette lighter socket: can be wired directly. I have a second battery 55AH, the largest that would fit under the bonnet. The fans are connected to this battery.

the 120mm CPU Fans cost 795 each and are designed for Servers/Disk Drives. These were purchased off ebay. The regular variety of CPU fan available for 80 bucks are just 25CFM by comparison. These fans are 90 CFM (Cubic feet per minute). Also the fans are very silent, much quieter than the regular CPU fans. Totally worth the extra cost.

@devdath: what car do you have?

Current is not consumed, regardless of the power required.

I have seen these fans and they are usually in the range of 0.5A/ 12V. A fan like this consuming 6W of DC power.
With a standard 50 or 60Ah battery, 2 of these should run for a few hours easily without draining anything.

Unless you have a battery isolator circuit installed, both batteries are running in parallel. In which case it will make no difference if your fans are connected to one battery or the other.

Exactly! It didn't strike me when I read '9A in 8 hours' at first!

Well, I too have tried to do the same. Just that when there is no breeze outside or when the weather is humid, it gets progressively difficult to sleep in the car.

Eagerly awaiting pics, purchase details and performance feedback.

I too wouldn't be worried for an hour or two of use. What I am looking for is at least 6 hours of continuous use with the engine off and enough safe starting power post the use.

I have a Scorpio. Could you please post pics of the installation and their effectiveness if possible?

So, how effective do you think the fans mentioned will be Sam, to keep the air circulating in my Scorpio's cabin?

^ i might be there this monday.
need to buy some stuff from market near that shop which has those small inverter and fans.

I'll try my best to come back with pics and details of those small inverter options.

Buy one of those hand fans, battery operated. They take 2 AA cells and run for 4~5 hrs.

Try to get hold of one. Simple! :)

This is the one we use for our little one (the blades are soft rubber but strong enough for the purpose):