technically challenged, need help!

B

BrOsK

New Member
let me begin by saying im not really a computer guy per se. im limited to video games and begging for help:D what i do is build vivariums(habitats containing running water,land and live plants) for lizards and poison dart frogs. now i have heard of people who rig power supplies to computer fans and fan controllers in order to regulate heat and humidity much the same way you would with a computer. my question is can anyone give me any insight on how this can be achieved without doing a bunch of crazy splicing and rewiring. i really dont feel like burning the house down! thanks in advance for any help you folks can give me.
 
I can tell right off that the largest case fan is 250mm in size and runs on 12v. But these fans regulate temp inside "very confined" spaces compared to the larger open spaced habitats I think you are referring to. You will probably find the need for ac window fans not case fans for Windows's machines needed there.
 
You could probably look around newegg and purchase a cheaper fan controller and some fans for not too much and just play with them. Hehe, I've never thought to use such things like that, but I could see it possibly working :P

All you'd really need is the fan controller, fans, and then some sort of power supply. The only problem, I don't know if the controller would run off of 12v, or both 5v and 12v. If it's just 12v, it'd be easy to find some sort of DC adapter and just splice the wires to where the power connection is on the controller...
 
This is much easier:

Click this - http://www.mcmaster.com/

Type in 608 in search box on the left and that will bring up the page 608 in their catalog. Just look in the A/C section(no re-wiring, just plug in). They have fans up to 11"s and move up to 1100cfm there. They even have thermostats, fan warmers, filters and gaurds on page 609
 
thanks to everyone who has replied. im not looking for them to control humidity just the heat from the lighting system. also im looking to run those little 60 -80 mm fans nothing big, maybe 3 or 4 of them. i know its going to take some creativity. maybe i just need to get some parts and play with them.
 
ahhhhh, thanks bldgengineer, these products are perfect. i was looking for something more DIY but this is even better since i dont have to wire anything.
 
At my building we had problems with the earlier one piece variable frequency drives over heating and shutting down. Eventually, the line side of the main disconnect(which was three phase 208v) started have major high amp draw due to the heat(i.e. #6 awg wire was burning up). The problem was the moron electricians installed the cabinets upside down and the cooling vents were on the bottom:mad: . So I bought 2 of the 3" 120v and 2 of the thermostats, drilled matching holes into the side of each cabinet(they were to close to the ceiling to do from the top, plus it was safer to do it from the side while hot), installed them so that they discharged interior air from the cabinet, and tied them into existing 120v inside the cabinet inline with the tstat set to 110F. Interior temps dropped from ~200F down to ~90F-115F(depends on the season).

These VFD's generate as much heat as any PC out there, probably more. The cabinets twice the size of a consumer grade full tower with a wide open vent area at the top of the cabinet. The actual drive has a 4" high speed fan running at full speed all the time. So with the cabinets installed upside down you can imagine things got REAL hot REAL quick.

Anyway, I was just showing how much air these things can actually move with the right amount of ventilation.
 
conceptually i need to do the exact same thing with the heat put out by the lighting system i will be using thanks again for the help.:D
 
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