Increasing Airflow/Ventilation in PVC Cages

[The Serpent Merchant]

The only issue I have with my PVC cages is that they don't have the greatest airflow. I have tried adding more holes but due to the internal volume of these cages holes just weren't cutting it. So yesterday I was doing some repair on one of the robots I've built and when I powered it back up to test it I noticed that one of the fans that cools some of the circuitry/motors wasn't running. So I pulled it off and fixed it, but that got me thinking what if I put a few of these on my cages to increase air flow. They are dirt cheap (I buy them by the dozen) and can really take a beating.

They are 40mm (approximately 1 1/5") diameter fans 12 volt DC, 1 Watt



Size comparison:



They are nearly silent and can run pretty much indefinitely.

So I grabbed a 40mm drill bit for plastic from the workshop I build robots in, and installed 2 on them to test:





For testing purposes I have them running off of the 12 volt DC rail on my prototyping board



So far these fans have been working great, no more stale air when I open up the doors of the cage.

I still need to screen off the fan holes, but I seriously doubt that these fans could injure even the most curious snake as the motor will stall if anything touches he fan blades.

Warning Techno-babble

I will build a microcontroller based fan controller (to give me individual control of fan speeds as well as real time based on/off cycling) I will be using an AVR microcontroller and program it in assembly for those who are into that type of thing, I am hoping to get 24 fan control channels when it's all said and done, but we'll see how things turn out. I'll keep everyone posted on it progress.

[kitedemon]

I have a version of this on my bearded dragon enclosure. In my case I used an AC version that can be 'dimmed' but basically the same principal. My pvc enclosures I found air flow to be dramatically increased by adding a vent low and froward. My enclosures are vented high and to the back I added low vents on the front corners. I found the cross venting generates a thermal breeze. It is enough that you can fly a thread on the low vents.

[The Serpent Merchant]

Interesting, I'll have to try that myself.

[kitedemon]

It really depends on the hot spot and where the vents are. Active systems are clearly always going to work, but a passive system if set up well can too. Not trying to suggest don't use a active system but a passive one is simple. I found that drawing it out helped me I marked the location of vents and hot spot and try to see where the air goes when it gets warm. Often the vents are all on one wall in mine above the hot spot and the warm air can only leave but there is little space for the cool to enter. The warm air leaves generating a slight low pressure it then draws in cool air than reverses. The low vents allow cool air to enter and the warm can exit and the whole system keeps neutral pressure.

[Slim]

Aaron, you aren't worried about drying the cage out?

[The Serpent Merchant]

That's what I'm testing right now. Since the fans have been running, (about 24 hours) the cage has gone down from about 65% to 53% so it's still in a good range, but I'm going to keep it going a week or so before I try modifying the rest of my cages.

[Slim]

Good luck with it, Bro

[kitedemon]

It is very easy just to add a humidifier to the room. Then you can have as much airflow as you want and not have humidity issues.

[The Serpent Merchant]

It is very easy just to add a humidifier to the room. Then you can have as much airflow as you want and not have humidity issues.

or in my case, open a few windows and not have to worry about heat or humidity lol

[kitedemon]

Rub it in... 6ºC out side now and that is warmer than it was last week. I had the seat heaters on in the car...