Fans in bodysuits

[thestuffedpanda]

The past two or three suits I've made have had more than enough room in the leg padding for a decent sized computer fan, but I have no way for the fan to circulate air properly. Has anyone put fans in a bodysuit before? The only way I could think of to allow the fan to pull fresh air from the outside in was by cutting a hole in the fur/padding and

Comments

[tgifriday13th]

a fan in the legs sounds like a great idea, gettimg the lower bits cool - important & neglected task.

what if you sort of tunnled diagonally so the mesh hole was in the side, usually more flat & less noticable than the front... then i guess depending on your design it could be incorperated with spots/design or hidden a bit with longer pile fur...

just throwing out ideas, i've never put in a leg fan

[thestuffedpanda]

*nods* I sweat a lot in suit (ewww)so I'm trying to figure out ways to improve the situation. XD; I'm at a healthy weight, in shape, etc but I get hot waaay quicker than my friends who suit. It drives me nuts, especially if I have to be in suit 6 - 8 hours at a convention for a masquerade.

[tgifriday13th]

yea, i'm lucky in that i am almost always cold if it's below 80.... buuuut i live in south texas -- we spent 90 days in 2011 over 100 degrees, so that sort of knocks a lot of the year out for much of anything furry. heh.

i was just reading beastcub's site suggesting wearing a lycra diveskin under your suit, i don't know how much that would help, but it might be something to check out as well

[thestuffedpanda]

I wear underarmour under the suit, I was thinking about lining the suit itself with lycra though.

[beastcub]

I considered adding one to the massive butt padding of the Arcanine quad... that is untill I realized just how naughty a vent hole would look .__.
that and, while she does lay/sit on her hip, I did not want to risk having the fan where it could get crushed.

[thestuffedpanda]

LOL that made me laugh quite a bit. XD I can see that being a problem too - sitting on the fan would not end too well I'm sure.

[fuzibuni]

I've thought of it before, and I think you wouldn't have to worry about making a vent hole in the fur... Fur breaths somewhat. Let us know if you do :) I've played around with the idea in my head, but I've never built a suit with any kind of padding to actually try the idea out!

[thestuffedpanda]

I will! :) I was wondering if all that leg foam would block it from circulating though, since that's where the fan would be at.

[mahadri]

Centrifugal (squirrel cage) fans are powerful enough to suck in air through fur, and mesh will allow for even more air flow. Ebay has some cheap centrifugal fans under "DC blower fan", but many aren't powerful enough to recommend for fursuit cooling. The only downside is that these fans can be loud and use a lot of batteries. Also, you can increase the airflow through fabrics with hollow airflow structures under the fabric.

[thestuffedpanda]

Interesting! I never would have thought of something like that. What do you mean by airflow structures? *tilts head*

[mahadri]

It's like an air funnel with the wider end at the fur and the narrow end at the fan inlet. If you create a funnel so that there's a 3" diameter opening at the fur and it tapers towards a centrifugal fan's 2" diameter inlet, that more than doubles the surface area of fur for air to enter through, so that might about double the air flow. If you're using closed-cell foam, you can carve the funnel into the foam and cover it with plastic mesh to retain the outer shape for the fur. Should I draw some sketches?

[thestuffedpanda]

Ahh, that makes sense. If you have time to draw up some sketches, that would be awesome. :)

[yagfox]

My legs don't get hot.

[thestuffedpanda]

It not that my legs get hot necessarily, but my body overall does. The legs just always have space to put a fan.