Cooling methods

[Saspotato]

Hey I spoke to the ex-sparky I work with and he said pretty much what Phoenixtear said - a switch mode power supply and to make sure you connect the positive thing on the fan to the positive thing on the power supply so it runs the right way (he used more technical language than that tho, its all I can remember). He also said Jaycar *is* a good place to go, he said just take what you want to run in and they will tell you what you need to do to get it to work.

 

[Daniel]

Abrahm, how many fans do you operate with a 5 amp - power supply? The computer fans I use have 0.15 amp each (at 12 V) and the power adaptors available here provide up to 2 amp. I even slow them down to 9 volts to reduce the noise. The DIY-constructions I use on an aquarium has 4 fans running and so I go with a 0.75 amp unit.

lazylilsnoop, the charger of your Nokia has too little power output, that's right. You will need a higher voltage output for better operation.

 

[Abrahm]

Abrahm, how many fans do you operate with a 5 amp - power supply? The computer fans I use have 0.15 amp each (at 12 V) and the power adaptors available here provide up to 2 amp. I even slow them down to 9 volts to reduce the noise. The DIY-constructions I use on an aquarium has 4 fans running and so I go with a 0.75 amp unit.

Only one and the peltier. I must just be misremembering but I could swear the 0.5-1amp power supply I used couldn't run the fan at any worthwhile speed. Possibly I didn't run it without the peltier also attached? The peltier draws a large amount of current but it becomes a solid hunk of ice within 30 minutes.

As for your 2 amp multi-voltage power supply, that's awfully nice! I combed Radio Shack (electronic parts and whatnot store in the US) and some online sellers for such a device and came up with very little beyond 0.3-1 amp devices. My google-fu may be weak in this regard though.

It's pretty obvious that lazylilsnoop should listen to Daniel as he knows far more about DIY electronics stuff than I probably ever will. But my computer power supply idea should power an entire rooms worth of caudate fans

 

[Daniel]

It's pretty obvious that lazylilsnoop should listen to Daniel as he knows far more about DIY electronics stuff than I probably ever will. But my computer power supply idea should power an entire rooms worth of caudate fans

...well now that makes me blush I'm no electrician, just a hobbyist who wants to try things.
I'm pretty sure that you could cool an entire room with your computer power supply - at least I can run a computer with video, sound, several hard drives, optical drives and so on with that
I'm not sure what the peltier element is meant for (although I know what a peltier element is...). With fans you achieve the cooling effect just by evaporation, you don't need any additional cooling element.