Question on cooling habitat with fan

[sedecatur]

I recently built a double stack crossfire habitat, They have a 1" cooling gap in between them and they are working great, I have the temps right after playing with the basking bulbs just a bit. However I think on a very warm day the temps are going to climb a little too high for mine or my beardies liking. The cage's have 1 8x16" vent on each side panel, 6 3" circle vents across the back and 2 3" circle vents on each front corner on top.
So my question is: I want to put 1 3" computer fan on one of the back 3" vents on the outside of the habitat sucking out any excessive heat, just sort of creating a slight cross draft. What I can’t figure out is what to use as a control to turn the fan on when the temps get to high. All the heat controllers will only turn it on if it gets to low. and i want it automated incase im not home at the time. I would like to keep the price reasonable so I can use them on several habitats, but at the same time I want it to be reliable, Does anyone have any ideas, I’m having a major case of creators block and I’m guessing I’m overlooking something very simple and obvious. Thanks all

 

[YATES]

I have the same issue. It's been warm for a few days here in Northern CA and my temps are hitting above 85 on cool side which causes my thermostat to turn off all heat/light until it cools. I need to get some type of automatic fan working to keep my temps down. Anyone got any advice out their????

 

[Twobeardieguy]

If you look back far enough someone did it before.

 

[FATBOYDADRAGON]

i purchased a 4" cabinet fan from radio shack for 16 bucks.
Installed it in one of the side vents on cool side and it works great/
Some time in summer here i see the cool side climbing to 89f.
Plug the fan in for a couple hrs and notice the temps drop to about 82
cool side..the fan is quiet and easy to install.
Hope this helps
Mike D.

 

[frank79]

Hi there
I did and it works great.What i did was buy a timer and plugged a fan set it to it then set it to come on during different times of the day.Also i used two fans one on the hot side one on the cool.The one on the hot side sucks air out the one on the cool blows cold air in.This is the fan set i bought then just a normal timer.
http://reptilekeeping.co.uk/lucky-reptile-terra-fan-set-tf1uk-p-2284.html?osCsid=seotalm39cu4i9i5dpsgjd2290

 

[YATES]

My friend builds RC cars for racing and he explained to me that I can set the fan to turn on ONLY when the temps get to hot (with a thermostat of some sort) and turn off once they cool. I am NOT handy and I will try his method but does anyone on the forum know how to set this up without breaking the bank?

 

[JeffSimpson]

It's certainly possible to control temps to heat and cool, but all of the (cheap) solutions that I can think of involve either spending some money or modifying something existing. This means soldering, wiring up an outlet, etc. I think your best bet is probably going to get an appliance timer, the kind that either lets you program multiple schedules or the ones that have all of the little buttons that you have to press in the buttons to set the schedule.

That being said, a 3" fan behind a vent is not going to move much air. Plus, if the ambient temps are fairly high, you'll be removing hot air and replacing with slightly cooler air. If it were, I would pick a day where I can check the temps regularly. Wire up the PC fan using an old cell phone charger, both of which you should be able to get for free or nearly free. And check the temps every 15 minutes or so to see if it's really changing much. I suspect that you will find it's not something that needs to be controlled preciously.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Any pictures?