June 22, 2025

Solar Ventilation For the Little Chickens' Coop

 One last touch for the little chicken's coop was a small fan for ventilation. It's in a mostly shaded spot, except for a little sun in the morning. But Dan was concerned about helping keep the air fresh in the coop, so he added a ventilation fan. 

The fan he used came from an old 12-volt travel cooler. He used these coolers when he was on over-the-road truck driver. While they aren't true refrigerators, they keep the cooler contents cool by forcing air over a small fan with aluminum fins. It won't  actually cool the coop, but it will help keep a modest air flow going and that's the point. He just used what we had!


The fan is powered by a 20-watt solar panel, attached to one of the barn window covers.


It gets good sun in the afternoon, which is the hottest part of the day. Dan mentioned hooking the fan to a battery to run it at night, so that's a future possibility. 


No complaints from the chickens, at any rate. 

7 comments:

Rosalea said...

I'm sure those wee ones will enjoy that, especially now that the heat of summer is upon us. Another ingenious 'Dan build', as always.

Boud said...

What a great idea. All the chickens will want to move in!

Leigh said...

Rosalea, we hope it helps!

Leigh said...

Liz, what was funny was that on the day after it was installed and running all the chickens were hanging out in the coop just watching it. I don't know if they liked the breeze or the sound, but we had the impression they approved!

Toirdhealbheach Beucail said...

Nifty! And what an appropriate use of solar.

Laurie said...

Great use of what you have on hand!

Ed said...

Do you have recommendations for small solar panels like that one? The ones I have bought that come in kits always seem to be undersized and short lived. I have one on my greenhouse but it worked for maybe two months and then stopped.