Amateur Electrician

Last week in town, I was able to find a small DC table fan for Jana, a great gift for a pregnant lady in Africa. Because we use solar power for electricity at our house, any normal fan uses too many watts for our system, but this small Indian-made fan that I bought from Zara Solar in town has been designed to run directly off of battery power, meaning that its wattage consumption is far less.

So, I got the idea that I would wire up one of our wall outlets in the bedroom to be a DC outlet instead of an AC outlet. That way we wouldn't have to try to snake a wire from the battery bank across the floor to the fan. Because we use DC power for our lights, I decided to wire this new DC outlet into the light system of the bedroom. After 3.5 hours of wrangling with wires above the ceiling, I got the outlet hooked up and the fan running. Success! Of course, I had to laugh when I realized that I had wired the outlet into the light system after the switch in the bedroom. The fan now works beautifully . . . only if the lights are on in the bedroom!

Now, knowing what I need to do, I will move the junction to connect with the system before the light switch so that we can run the fan without having to leave the light on. Lesson learned.

Comments

[Daniel Stahl]

That is great that you got it working!
Not sure on how conservative you have to be on power, but a great way to power small electronics, like a DC fan or light, is using pulse width modulation.

[Diane Maurer]

Jana & Dan,
Could you add me to the family email? Are you at the hospital yet to await the birth of the baby? I know you are due July 5th which is just a couple of weeks. You may have already had the baby.......can't wait to hear about your new little miracle:)
Life has been really busy for me in the past month.......end of school year and many pot lucks and volunteering at Ellie's school, with Girl Scouts and more. Now, Ellie is enjoying summer break time. She is going to the park program and enjoying time with friends. We are spending lots of outdoor time as a family....biking, going to parks, floating David's remote control boat, swimming.......Say a prayer for David. He has quit smoking for 3 weeks to date. It is wonderful to see him taking better care of himself. Love and hugs to you entire family. Diane :)