How to wire PC fans

Hey I am setting up a stealth grow box and wanted to use pc fans for ventilation, but I don't know how to wire them to use a 3 prong outlet. Could anyone enlighten me?

theres a way with a old cell phone charger but im not sure how to do it

Take an old cell phone adapter or any kind of AC to DC converter and match up the positive and negative. White or red is usually positive and black is negative. Most computer fans operate at 12 volts. Make sure on your AC/DC converter the output is no more than 12V or it can burn the motor out. You can hook it up to a converter with less than 12volts (that will just slow your fan down). Also you want to check the amperage. The AC/DC converter is rated at a certain amount of amps. You want to make sure that how ever many fans you are using on that single converter doesn't exceed what it is rated for. the amps are usually displayed as mA.

travist said:

Take an old cell phone adapter or any kind of AC to DC converter and match up the positive and negative. White or red is usually positive and black is negative. Most computer fans operate at 12 volts. Make sure on your AC/DC converter the output is no more than 12V or it can burn the motor out. You can hook it up to a converter with less than 12volts (that will just slow your fan down). Also you want to check the amperage. The AC/DC converter is rated at a certain amount of amps. You want to make sure that how ever many fans you are using on that single converter doesn't exceed what it is rated for. the amps are usually displayed as mA.

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as above definatley the best way. most 12v chargers (mobile phone, keyboard leads, portable hoover leads) will do the job. if the lead is just a black cable look for the side with a faint white line running along it. this will be your positive (the part that you would attatch to the red cable on your fan)

yesh now who wants to send me some old comp fans lol

Kaptain Kron said:

yesh now who wants to send me some old comp fans lol

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My local Northern Tool sells used computer fans. Approximately $5 - $7 for a 3.5 inch to 6 inch fan. Not as good as free, but still pretty cheap!!

Go to any computer repair shop/used computer shops and they usually have a lot of them for cheap. Sometimes with the power supply unit.

Thanks! I'm gonna go that cell phone charger route. I appreciate the responses.

Could we chop and re-use the power-plug from the computer?

IXOYE said:

Could we chop and re-use the power-plug from the computer?

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Sure, if your the computer runs on a 12 volt power supply. I have never heard of one though.

likeshispot said:

Thanks! I'm gonna go that cell phone charger route. I appreciate the responses.

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look at the voltage on the cell phone charger though, as it may be very low and might not allow the fan to move a lot of air.

IXOYE said:

Could we chop and re-use the power-plug from the computer?

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What lord said. Computers usually run on more than 12v. Even if you have and old nintendo system or playstation a power cord from there might work. I know gamecube transformers run 12V and have enough amperage to run copious amounts of fans.

Yes, an old cell-phone charger would certainly do the trick. If you don't want to do ANY wiring, you can also use this:

http://www.coolerguys.com/840556029977.html

You can adjust the voltage (fan speed) with one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811996016

Also, this item (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1024/bus-81/SunBeam_Multi_Fan_Power_Port_MFPP.html?tl=g34c17&id=cs2Je2b2#blank) along with the 4-pin molex power adapter in my first link (assuming that all of your pc fans have 3-pin power plugs).

see if any of your friends ahve an old pc sitting around. its the best place to get free fans and also take the power supply

http://www.instructables.com/id/Convert-an-ATX-Power-Supply-Into-a-Regular-DC-Powe/

its really easy to do. you don't even need to use fancy red and black connectors for the ground and 12v output, just strip the red or yellow wires and attach them to the positive of the pc fan and connect any of the black wires to the negative. i have 3 pc fans currently connected to mine and they are safe to have on 24/7 because thats how they were designed. with this you don't need to worry about voltages or amps coming out cause the power supply was made to power the fans, you are just eliminating some of the plastic connectors.