Using an old AC fan for a garage fan

Many times there is a wiring diagram on the side of the motor.

Find a friend that has an ammeter so you can check the amps, many times when you hook up a squirrel cage fan in free air that was designed to run a static pressure, you will need to block off some air to keep from overloading the motor.

- Robert

Go buy a cheap fan made for that use. The AC fan was not designed for the use you intend.

You dont....really. In order to do what you want, it would cost more in parts than it would to go to Lowes and buy an air circulator... Hell..I have about 30 of the AC blowers out back, and even I dont make them into fans.

While I admire your desire to recycle, for $17 at HD you can get a 20" box fan, stick that puppy (facing out) in the window.

Dan Shulman Washington, DC

Are you familiar with the concept of cfm?

Yeah, but squirrel cage blowers are not the best for ventilation in his setup either. They can be used in a box to make an air cleaner though. Ed

According to Edwin Pawlowski :

They push an enormous amount of air if blowing through, for example, something like a wall, window frame or ducting. 1000 CFM or more...

One issue is that they tend to need 1/4 or 1/3 HP motors. That's a lot of power.

Not cost effective if the blower unit doesn't already include the motor.

They certainly can. I built one. It's a squirrel cage blower on a 1/2HP motor, but not a furnace/AC type. [It's out of a computer and much smaller. Noisy tho. Needs a muffler.]

Another problem: probably 240 VAC.

How about static pressure, and unloaded cages????

Nothing like watching one of those go boom when you least expect it to.

This is Turtle.

You know I never thought about that when they bust open. They do sometimes send stuff a flying everywhere. I hope if he hears it making a noise. He will turn it off.

TURTLE

This is Turtle.

All Blowers that come out of gas furnaces are 120 volt and all Blowers that come out of Air handlers, Electric heat , and Gas Package units or All Electric Package units are all 220 volt motors.

You will just have to find a gas / Propane furnace blower Assembley to be 120 volts.

TURTLE

FYI: I have a belt driven, squirel cage blower, from a heating system of some kind, bolted to a stand in my garage. It blows a hell of a lot of air. At least 4 times as much as a box fan. Makes a great garage fan.

I've got a larger box fan sitting on a pedastal I made for it in the window of my garage. when I'm doing dusty/smokey work, I run it so it "sucks" the air out of the garage. on hot days I turn it around and it "blows" into the garage for a breeze. more than enough power to keep a 21x28 garage cool

Good. Belt driven units are not as prone to go boom as a direct drive model.

But still, my circulator that I got blows a hell of a lot of air, and I dont need to worry about it doing to me, what I get to fix all day anyway... I am not talking about a POS box fan...but a unit designed to move about 3X as much air as a 5 ton blower will....

i got three of them... they cost me $5.00 each... the guy that rigged them up just took an old lamp cord and attached one wire to one speed and the other wire to common on the fan..... they all work great... who is gonna worry about fan speed when you are soaking wet with sweat in the middle of the summer.. thats all i use them for.. one thing: if you gonna stand out in the sun working on a car with the fan on you for the heat.. (like i did)... when you are finished you gonna feel real burned... the fan kept me cool but the sun was still burning my skin.. when finished i was burning up ..... similar to the wind from the beach...