LED and fan wires

[Blacktank]

want to step down in wire size(12 gauge now) for the led lights and will be adding a couple computer fans,what would be a good gauge for that?

getting thick strand 12 gauge to marry up with the tiny factory wires is not pretty and probably causing a nice hot spot there

[sternwake]

Would be nice to know how much computer fan and how much LED ( amperage total) you plan on running through such a circuit, but I'd say get some 18-2 lampwire from the home stores.

[Blacktank]

dont have the fans or led's yet,i have to piece things together as $$$ allow,took me almost a year to gather for the engine refreshing

the rv came with a bulky metal hood above the stove,i need a light and ventilation for cooking

[Handy_Dan]

Doesn't the hood already have a fan and light in it? Isn't it already 12v?

We were just working on a friend's Chinook, similar to yours, and switched out the 12v normal looking light bulb in his stove hood for an LED one. Made a world of difference in light output.

His has a 6" fan in the hood, and moves more air than multiple muffin fans would.

[GypsyDogs]

just to chime in my $.02
I am looking Very Closely at Marine inline Blowers.. 4" ones can rate up to almost 300 cfm.. (they appear to be, essentially, stacked Burly computer case fans on steroids. inside a duct-housing type case.)

Possible, more affordable ventilation option??
Mount it inside a noise-isolation box with in/out venting... hmm....

[Cammalu]

Anna, give us a hint on your new project

[Blacktank]

the stock hood is a large metal box with a fan you can hear from a block away,i can do better

[Blacktank]

just to chime in my $.02
I am looking Very Closely at Marine inline Blowers..  4" ones can rate up to almost 300 cfm..  (they appear to be, essentially, stacked Burly computer case fans on steroids. inside a duct-housing type case.)

Possible, more affordable ventilation option??
Mount it inside a noise-isolation box with in/out venting...  hmm....

i shall check them out

[frater secessus]

I am looking Very Closely at Marine inline Blowers..
...
Mount it inside a noise-isolation box with in/out venting... hmm....

I bought one for that purpose. Putting a motor control on it helps back down the rpm into non-ear-destroying range. Still moves a shiz-ton of air.

Hven't installed it yet, and have come up with a competing idea for the blower. :-\


Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[sternwake]

I am quite interested in powerful inline marine bilge blowers, on a PWM motor speed controller, and their amp draw at max speed, and at lowered speeds, and the air moved when at lower speeds. There are many cone style engine air filters which can be easily attached to one of these underbody and force filtered air inside

But without any personal experience testing one, all I will say is that they seem awesome, to hook upto flexible tubing of the same diameter, but I have no personal experience with them or data on their amp draw for the air moved or the noise made to do so. If members here do employ such systems, share the data if you have the tools and ability and desire to capture it.

Without data any impression is just another opinion.

Most inline bilge blowers are intended to be powered not by a battery continuously, but a battery soon to be charged by an alternator when the engine is running, so they are not built for efficiency, but more like brute force so much less thought is given to how much wattage they consume or noise made when doing so.

Computer Muffin fans range so wildly in amp draw, noise made, and air moved that anyone who places them all into the same category in terms of ability and function has their head so far up their hind quarters that they should not give advice on shit they obviously know absolutely nothing about.

The computer muffin fan designers have taken efficiency and noise into high consideration and some of what some of the brands, like Noctua, have done to increase efficiency and reduce noise is downright impressive.

If one chooses a PWM motor speed controller for a fan, choose one which advertises 21KHZ or higher, as most electric motors that are subjected to lower than 21KHZ Pm signal will whine annoyingly audible to the human ear when the motor is not at max speed, and the whine can be extremely loud.

many LED dimmers can work well to slow down fans, but the whine at lowered speeds is often intolerable, and most PWM LED dimmers are in the 13 to 15K range.

in general the larger the fan diameter the more air it moves for less amperage consumed and noise made.

The Silverstone FM181 is 180MM, 12v, about 7 inches diameter, and comes with a speed controller built in, so one can spin a dial and change rpm from ~500 to 1300rpm, and move 65 t o150CFM. At minimum speed it draws about 0.09 amps ad at max speed it draws 0.27 amps, in the 12.8v range. it is very quiet even at 1300 rpm. I use and can recommend this fan, but exhausting cooking gasses froma multiburner stove less than 2 feet away is beyond the duty mine has seen. Mine sucks in a lot of salt laden humidity laced air instead.

The silverstone AP182 ranges from 0.05 amps to 1.3 amps and goes up to 2000 rpm and is quite powerful at 2K, but this fan does NOT like battery charging voltages at max speed. The FM181 has had no issues at full speed and many hundreds of hours at 14,7v in my rig. I have an 8 year old silverstone fm121 on my ceiling which has been exhausting cooking gasses and fumes from a single burner stove 4 feet underneath it..


As far as LEDs go, I have been using the T 10 wedge base for most of mine. The small incandescent dashboard bulbs like 168 and 194s are t10 wedge bases. IN general the LED offerings with t10 bases have been getting much much better over the years,, but the brightest ones do not live very long when left at their brightest settings, assuming one can lower the PWM dial and dim them.

I'd highly recommend being able to dim the LEDS, and also having very bright LEDS that one can then dim. It is kind of a crap shoot as to what Currrent LED bulbs will be bright and last a respectable amount of time. There are other popular light bulb bases, like the Ba15s, which is likely the same as the reverse bulbs(1156 or 1141) in many 80's style Vans, whereas the other dual filament bulbs for braking and running lights are the BA15d or the 1157/2157/3196 bulb. Do not confuse the two for interior lighting as an 1157 will not fit in an 1156 base

Regarding dropping in LED bulbs into tailight fixtures, I wasted about 22$ doing so and returned the 1157 incandescents after the LEDs failed in about 22 months. Before they failed i thought they were a good purchase as they were slightly brighter, were well visible from all possible angles, and had ~75% less amp draw. But they failed and I went for some unknown amount of time with one brake light not working and the other flickering, before I noticed.