Idea for a solar powered bathroom extractor fan
I was just having a shower and have come up with another one of my zany ideas. Our bathroom is downstairs and a kind of outside back extension to the house. There's one radiator in there and as the missus is tight with the heating almost to the point of being mean, it gets a bit steamy in there because it's a very cold room with tiles etc. Consequently the paintwork on the ceiling gets covered in mildew and the paint is flaking because of all the humidity.
Now you know I love all things solar, so how about a DIY solar powered bathroom extractor fan? I believe you can already get solar powered greenhouse ventilators but they cost an arm and a leg - nearly £75 when I checked and they probably wouldn't be up to the job of clearing the steam out of a bathroom.
These ideas stem from the fact that the garden solar lights appear to work quite well even in the winter and how often would the extractor fan get used anyway? Half an hour a day at the most. With enough battery backup and solar cells I'm sure this would be feasible, particularly as the building with the bathroom has a low roof. It shouldn't be too hard to put a panel up there in a prominent position to catch the best of the light. One could perhaps either take apart enough old garden lights and make a panel, or alternatively buy one of those car/boat trickle charge panels from Maplin. Next up, the extractor fan itself.
We've got this ventilation grill on one wall inside the bathroom and I had considered the idea of sticking one of those vent-a-matic cord operated fans on the outside inside some sort of housing and sticking the cord through to the inside. I don't really want to start modifying the inside of the bathroom too much because of the tiles and so on.
Anyway, hook that up to a batch of rechargeable batteries (perhaps borrowed from the solar lights), connect up your solar panel and it's job done.
I suppose as well as or instead of the cord, one could incorporate a motion sensor instead so that the fan turns on for five minutes. This would involve a bit more electronics and I'd have to go do some studying, but it might be a fun little project.
So what do you think of the idea in general... is it really possible to build a solar powered extractor fan? Answers on a postcard please!
