Quote:
Originally Posted by cfg83
Patrick -
Interesting. My fan has a 30 Amp fuse, but I *guess* it uses less amps than that.
Question: What is an acceptable *average* amperage draw from the cooling fan over time? Let's say that my 30 Amp volt fan is on for 2 minutes of a 30 minute drive. That's :
(30 Amps * 2 Minutes) / 30 minutes total = 60 / 30 = 2 Amps average.
CarloSW2
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Well, ideally you would have just enough block that the fan was just on the edge of coming on, but never did. I'm not sure how you would set that up; maybe if you had a good enough temp gauge you could monitor that and set the block so that you were 1 degree below the fan switch temp. On some aircraft they have manually adjustable "cowl flaps" and the pilot opens or closes them to keep the engine temp within an acceptable range. The flaps are infinitely adjustable within their operating range.
WRT the fan power consumption, 2 amps times 12 volts = 24 watts on average.
24 watts divided by 746 watts/horsepower = .032 horsepower used by the fan on average. I don't know if you would lose more than that by having the block open too far, but I think it's a possibility.