PC Fan Power Supply

I found a site with power cords for PC Fans: Dayton Blowers: REPLACEMENT 6' POWER CORD FOR AXIAL FAN [736913] - Fans, Blowers & Ducting - Environmental Control - Discount Specialty Farm, Greenhouse & Garden Supply Store - Horticulture Source .

Box Layout: Flower Chamber - 3' x 3' x 6', Mother Chamber - 1.5' x 3' x 4', Clones Chamber - 1.5' x 3' x 2'.

The only reason I had not planned to do PC fans was the power cord for them as I read that while it is easy to wire something like an old car charger cord to a PC fan that running it using that cord for long periods of time is not safe. Think a power supply like in that link would do the trick? If so, I could probably get a way with using a 6" PC fan to vent the mother chamber and a 4" PC fan to vent the clone chamber and was going to use 2 of the 6" Duct Fans( High Tech Garden Supply ) to exhaust the flower chamber with passive intakes on all 3 chambers. What do you think? Is this power cord safe for PC fans or is there another safe setup that can run long periods of time with no electrical problems?

While I haven't used that cord I have used a whole lotta PC fans for various purposes and you can run them forever on pretty much any power source. I hardwired a 10 year old PC power supply a while ago for the 2 PC fans I was using for a small experimental box I made (got nothing better to do? try building a box in under an hour with whats in your house at the time :thumbsup:).
Pretty much what I'm saying is that PC fans are versatile and use very, very little power and I see no reason why that cord shouldn't meet your needs.

BTW-If execution matches the design you could have a money setup.

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Originally Posted by wraithx47

While I haven't used that cord I have used a whole lotta PC fans for various purposes and you can run them forever on pretty much any power source. I hardwired a 10 year old PC power supply a while ago for the 2 PC fans I was using for a small experimental box I made (got nothing better to do? try building a box in under an hour with whats in your house at the time :thumbsup:).
Pretty much what I'm saying is that PC fans are versatile and use very, very little power and I see no reason why that cord shouldn't meet your needs.

BTW-If execution matches the design you could have a money setup.

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Awesome Thanks!

i had the same issue; Was trying to find a way to wire a PC fan for my setup.

I found RadioShake/ The Source carries a small but powerful fan that runs on AC power. you just need to go to Home Depot and buy wire and a male plug.

wire it up and your off.

hope this helps.

MJ

Ground green wire to any surrounding black wire - always-on computer PSU - plug in as many fans as your rails will handle.

I was going to do that for my PC grow box, but I decided against it and just went with a 12VDC wall wart.

alright, im having the same problem. but on another site i saw a guy who bought an adapter that could plug into your wall and run a fan with a positive cord and a negative cord, it was basicly a 12v battery that plugged into the wall, im going to invest like 15 bucks into one...seems like a good idea to me, you might want to look into it.

I bought this after reading someone's suggestion on one of the forums...

Silenx IXAFCEX Four Channel External Fan Controller at TigerDirect.com

Well if anyone has questions about how to hook up PC fans, Power supply alternatives, or similar questions..... just PM me.

I currently run an 100 watt LED setup that uses five PC fans as well. I wired the whole thing myself, using as much safety as possible. I use two PC power supplies at 650 watts, and 550 watts. I've modded the insides to bypass the power switch, and to clean up the excessive wires that are mostly un-needed.

So I'm here to help, please feel free to ask!:pimp:

P.S. PC power supplies are very lossy under load, meaning the more you run off one Power Supply Unit (PSU) the less voltage that PSU can produce on it's 12V line. (That is why I use two, and they are so high in wattage.... also the 550, and 650 rating is for ENTIRE wattage, and the 12V line is only getting about 50% of that total in most situations.... no matter what it says on it's sticker..... I've done excessive testing, as I am a computer repairman, and have tons of old PSU's lying around):D

Wall-Wart: A power adapter, the type you plug into your wall, and will have a cord running off it, or possibly terminals where you can attach wires.

NOTE: Wall warts in the 12V DC variety are not easy to find over 500mA..... just so you know, each normal PC fan takes 140mA-170mA.......

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maxor420

Well if anyone has questions about how to hook up PC fans, Power supply alternatives, or similar questions..... just PM me.

I currently run an 100 watt LED setup that uses five PC fans as well. I wired the whole thing myself, using as much safety as possible. I use two PC power supplies at 650 watts, and 550 watts. I've modded the insides to bypass the power switch, and to clean up the excessive wires that are mostly un-needed.

So I'm here to help, please feel free to ask!:pimp:

P.S. PC power supplies are very lossy under load, meaning the more you run off one Power Supply Unit (PSU) the less voltage that PSU can produce on it's 12V line. (That is why I use two, and they are so high in wattage.... also the 550, and 650 rating is for ENTIRE wattage, and the 12V line is only getting about 50% of that total in most situations.... no matter what it says on it's sticker..... I've done excessive testing, as I am a computer repairman, and have tons of old PSU's lying around):D

Wall-Wart: A power adapter, the type you plug into your wall, and will have a cord running off it, or possibly terminals where you can attach wires.

NOTE: Wall warts in the 12V DC variety are not easy to find over 500mA..... just so you know, each normal PC fan takes 140mA-170mA.......

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The reason most PSUs become inefficient under load is because hardware load is not properly matched to nominal PSU output. I pull full power across every rail, but then again I am using hardware that REQUIRES 500w MINIMUM to even allow a system boot. Then I run a game, my space-heater 9800GTX+ pushes full 700w load, both on internal monitors and my Kill-a-watt external power monitor.

Find a 50w low-profile PSU and load it to the max with fans (you'll get about 14 on one) and you'll hit your energy-star 85+% efficiency rating.

Fun times trying to teach that lesson to the folks at HP for three years - they still haven't learned and that's why their laptops get so hot and burn out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maxor420

Well if anyone has questions about how to hook up PC fans, Power supply alternatives, or similar questions..... just PM me.

I currently run an 100 watt LED setup that uses five PC fans as well. I wired the whole thing myself, using as much safety as possible. I use two PC power supplies at 650 watts, and 550 watts. I've modded the insides to bypass the power switch, and to clean up the excessive wires that are mostly un-needed.

So I'm here to help, please feel free to ask!:pimp:

P.S. PC power supplies are very lossy under load, meaning the more you run off one Power Supply Unit (PSU) the less voltage that PSU can produce on it's 12V line. (That is why I use two, and they are so high in wattage.... also the 550, and 650 rating is for ENTIRE wattage, and the 12V line is only getting about 50% of that total in most situations.... no matter what it says on it's sticker..... I've done excessive testing, as I am a computer repairman, and have tons of old PSU's lying around):D

Wall-Wart: A power adapter, the type you plug into your wall, and will have a cord running off it, or possibly terminals where you can attach wires.

NOTE: Wall warts in the 12V DC variety are not easy to find over 500mA..... just so you know, each normal PC fan takes 140mA-170mA.......

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That's very useful to know. Thank you for the info and the offer for help. I do have one question, have you carbon filtered any PC fans for exhaust?