Anyone know of a solar powered way to...

ailuro2

cool down a dog in a caravan?

My sil loves her dogs, and tries not to leave them too long, but would like to know if there's a way to cool down the dogs when they are left in the caravan - they already have blinds etc. down, but I think there must be a solar powered way to cool the dogs down...

anyone know what it is - I also remember seeing a little gap filler that sat on top of a car side window and let fresh air in that way....

any ideas, anyone?

Thanks :beer:

Fife_Flyer

There are indeed solar powered fans available that fit on the top edge of an opening car window that claim to replace stale warm air inside the vehicle with cooler, fresh air from outside. However, I am not sure whether they would fit on a caravan window that usually opens outwards from the bottom. To give you an idea, if you enter 'solar fan' in the eBay search engine, it should bring up items such as these.

Another possible alternative that I know works to a degree is to use a 12 volt oscillating fan (again usually sold for in-car use) connected to the caravan's 12 volt battery (assuming it is a touring caravan with no electric hook-up). Importantly, the amount of current the fan draws would need to be checked so that the battery does not become discharged.

Does your SIL already have a solar panel to charge the caravan battery? If she has and it is of large enough charging capacity, it should keep the caravan battery charged up whilst the fan is running.

If you match the solar panel to the fan, then it should possible to run the fan directly from the panel though wiring it through the battery would perhaps be better.

As with anything electrical, always ensure everything is connected correctly and properly fused.

HTH's.

greenbee

You can get solar powered fans designed for ventilation in boats, conservatories yet, which I'm sure you could install in a caravan. Just google 'solar vent' and plenty of things come up.

ailuro2

No, she doesn't have a solar panel yet, but she seemed very keen on getting one, looking on Maplin's they seem to come in around £300 though, a fair bit of money!

Fife_Flyer

ailuro2 wrote: »

No, she doesn't have a solar panel yet, but she seemed very keen on getting one, looking on Maplin's they seem to come in around £300 though, a fair bit of money!

Does that include guaranteed wall-to-wall sunshine? I'm not familiar with Maplin's products so really can't comment on the price. Generally speaking, the better the quality and the higher the output of the panel, the higher the price.

I think we have to be careful here not to use a sledgehammer to crack a wee nut. If the solar panel is required just to keep the battery topped up so that the fan can be used, a lower output panel may well suffice. Again, this is really dependant on the amount of power the fan uses, how long it will be running for and whether the sun is shining for a good long period each day.

On the other hand, if SIL wishes to use a solar panel to charge the caravan battery to power all the electrical loads in the caravan, then a panel with a significantly higher output would be required. A charge controller would also be required to regulate charging of the battery. If this is the preferred use of the solar panel, then some sums need to be done to calculate the size of panel required.

I'm no expert in this field, but basically you have to add up the amount of power each electrical appliance uses, multiply that by the expected number of hours use per day, divide that by 12 (volts) to give a load in amps. Then multiply that figure by the number of days she will be away to give an overall power requirement.

So, if total electrical power is 50 watts in use for 2 hours each day, then 100 watts of power will be used. Dividing this figure by 12 (volts) gives 8.3 amps. If she is away for five days, then a total of 41.6 (8.3x5) amps will be used. If the caravan battery has a capacity of 110 amp hours (noting that leisure batteries should not be allowed to discharge more than 50% of their capacity), then a fully charged battery at the beginning of the holiday would easily last without charging.

Much more electrical load than this would require the battery to be charged at some point during those five days. A solar panel rated at 10 watts output in ideal conditions (remember that ideal conditions are quite rare) would put about 0.83 of an amp back into the battery during the course of the day. If we take our example useage figure of 8.3 amps per day, then we can see that we would only be replacing about a tenth of that using the solar panel with the nett effect being a discharge from the battery of 7.47 amps per day.

Hence the importance of matching the size of panel to the amount of power being used.

How does SIL charge the caravan battery now? Does she use electric hook-ups when on site? If she does, then the on-board caravan battery charger should keep the battery charged up anyway.

I'm sure there are many sites on the internet that explain it better than I have. SIL may well be advised to seek more professional advice before doing anything.

ailuro2

Fife Flyer, thanks very much for all the info - I'll show her your reply, and she can take it from there. Cheers! :beer:

unrich

You could have the solar panel connected to a mobile phone so it rings the RSPCA when the sun is hot enough to make the dogs pant.

Perhaps putting the dogs in kennels would be the thing if one can't look after them on holiday. And if one can't afford to kennel them then one can't really afford the holiday or to keep a pet.

guineapig

A colleague of ours was prosecuted after her dog died in their caravan.

The RSPCA took statements from people ( basically to try and find out if this was a tragic accident or if she was cruel/stupid)

We used to have a caravan, which let's face it is a larger, more square shaped car, insofar as it will heat up/and cool down like one.
Because of the "tin can" nature of the caravan we never ever left our dog alone in the van on a hot day ( I would rather have stuck pins in my eyes) When it was warm and we were together ( us and our dog) we arranged the place like we do at home, lot's of fans blowing, and the little air con unit on if it was very warm.

Our dog loves iced water and we make sure she has a huge dish of it and we never allow it to either run out or get warm (well, do you like to drink warm water?!)
We take rental cottage holidays these days and you are not allowed to leave them alone in the cottages, so we don't. Ever.
We work around it.
Yes, it can be a pain ( we never eat out on holiday, though we do get a nice take-out sometimes).
When you take on the responsibility of a dog you have to commit to them as if they were a child.
As a previous owner of a caravan and a dog ( having both at the the same time) unless she is prepared to get a small air con unit, and hang the cost, what's more important? I don't think there is anyway you can keep a dog cool in a tin can on a hot day.
Whilst "soloutions" are expensive, so is a dog, but I knew that when we got her and I intend to make her as happy as possible for the rest of her life.

ailuro2

Perhaps I should have made it clearer....she never leaves them for very long, and they only bought the van so she could go on holiday and take the dogs too, she feels it upsets the dogs when they are kennelled, they are both 8 and in retriever years not so spring chicken like...

My question was whether it was possible to use solar power to cool the van in a 'green' way, never though to assure folks she'd not let her dogs suffer.

culpepper

how about getting a tie out thingummy and having an awning, then she can leave them tied to the tie out(sorry cant remember the name but we had one for our alsatian,they are like a huge corkscrew and you twist it into the ground and have a thick wire lead for the dog).The awning left open, could shade them and the tie out contain them,got to be better than beng shut in ,in hot weather even for a little while.

pboae

I've been looking at these to ventilate a van, http://www.solarequip.co.uk/acatalog/Mulit-Purpose_Solar_Vent.html I am not sure how effective they would be though, really I would prefer something that actively cooled, rather than just ventilated, but I haven't found anything suitable yet.