Air movement while covered

[jasun]

Since my boat sits on a lift at a buddies house under a crappy lift canopy, I have no choice but to put my boat cover on usually right when we are done and stuff inside is still damp or wet.

When i uncover the boat after a few days it has a terrible cat piss/musty smell to it. I have put damp rid in it and they last about 2 weeks. I have a few RV order absorbers in it and it helps some but I wanted a way to circulate the air while I wasn't there.

I found some fans that i mounted to several locations to try to keep air moving. Only problem was how to turn them on and off without going there to do it.
My first thought was to use a thermostat and set it to a specific temp for it to turn on. But other then 2 small cents on the cover there is no way to dissipate the heat.

So I went to Amazon to look and found a programable timer that would do what I wanted.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/20/339033b3773bada7895ee064cff6ef87.jpg

It is programable up to 18 different ways. The program that I used was one power was applied, the circuit would close until timer one ran down. One time are one was done the circuit would open until timer 2 ran down. Then it would repeat.

I have a solar panel attached to the top of my boatlift and I have a power maintenance module on it that has an outlet option.
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This option allows you to draw power from the battery through this module. When it gets low enough, it will cut power to whatever is running out of there. It will then allow the solar panel to recharge the battery until it reaches an appropriate voltage and it will then allow power to flow through there again.


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[jasun]

I wired up all of my fans to the timer. I set the timer to open the circuit for one hour every 18 hours. Each fan is about half an amp hour, and I have four of them. So I should only use about 2 A which should not be a problem because I'm running and 80 W solar panel which produces about 4 A of charging.
The circuitboard can do up to 270 hours per timer. I have it set up for 60 counts at 60 seconds per each count for the closed circuit (1 hour) and 1080 counts at 60 seconds per account for the open circuit (18 hours). I have the circuitboard wire to a switch so I can turn the power on and off. Every time I cut power to it and apply it again, the timers restart. By setting it when I did, but fans should turn on about 1 PM tomorrow and run for an hour.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/20/8c86828c3d07706ce3d9f5d190d62dc3.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/20/c4132cb99c93d1b75e01a019326f16a8.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/20/4b584894dd7d4116064fce76b91d36e0.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/20/b97b8ea5aa43a32bf6cd0632aa386b1a.jpg


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[jasun]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/20/ab7ba5bf4041f15012d0343d73222bce.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/20/b9e2172cc490b438d5402dca5919d0aa.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/20/f325101f62c8eb299d29f86b295af79c.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/20/602413252d855521bbf2f31c02b0d7e4.jpg



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[jasun]

By the time I was on wiring everything up, I can see that the timer was already counting down about 20 minutes.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/20/1d1f7895d4048813ba3f3753fbbacaf7.jpg

With the solar panel and the power maintenance, I should be good to go as far as not running the battery dead.

I hope to just keep the air circulating during the heat of the day. I know I will need to go back and readjust my timers, but I'm excited to find that circuit board with all of those programming options for eight dollars. All my fans are out of sight which makes it nice. When I flipped the jump seat in the back up, I can point it so that the air almost forms a circular pattern. We will see if it helps or not!


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[cadunkle]

Pretty slick. Hopefully getting the air moving a bit will help the hot air and moisture flow out the vents in your cover.

[Jetlink]

Is it the boat being wet that is the issue or are you also keeping wet gear in there under the cover as well?

[jasun]

Just the boat carpet. I always hang my life jackets off the back when we are done wake boarding so they don't drain in the boat and then hang them off the lift canopy after the boat is covered.


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[Cusefan78]

That's pretty impressive. I have always left a flap open on the cover and it seems to work well. I bet your foam has some old water in it and that's the source of the smell.

[Jetlink]

That's pretty impressive. I have always left a flap open on the cover and it seems to work well. I bet your foam has some old water in it and that's the source of the smell.

How old is old in your opinion? He just did a cap off restoration a year, two years ago at most.

[jasun]

Plus no foam was added. The one thing I know I didn't do right was the adhesive I use on my carpet. I used outdoor carpet adhesive which was a really thick goop more so than marine carpet adhesive which is watery and applied with a roller instead of a trial. I wonder if that has something to do with it.


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[pridekit]

Really cool! I would get a small plastic box (maybe a small electrical junction box) to put the circuit in and silicone the hole(s) to run the wires out of.


Then again, I live near saltwater so I tend to go overboard on water/salt proofing things :P

[bsharer]

I remove or move seat bottoms around, take out the tube and life jackets. I put a small squirrel cage fan in my boat on the port side floor in front of the back seat. Point it slightly up and aimed at the helm and walkway to the bow. Put the boat cover on and cinch it up. I leave the fan on 24/7 on med or high in the summer, low to medium in the winter. My boat gets really wet with all the kids climbing in and out, stuffing the wet tube back in, etc. Never any musty or mildew smell, never any mold. Keeps the air flowing around everywhere and I'd like to think it's cooler in there. I store outside and there is no roof over it, and it can be 105+* in the summer.