About the paint. I also found that it didn't help but a couple of degrees on my new station. When my old station started fading from the suns strong rays, it began to read hotter and hotter. This was when it was a year old or so. That's when I really noticed several degrees improvement, and that was with the fan running at full speed. IF the station is new, the coating that is on there should work well at reflecting a lot of the heat.
Now these newer fans, particularly the dual solar cell powered fan is not running as fast as the old systems made 3 years (approximately) ago did. The parts have changed, and you can look at my photo and look at the newer system photos and see that. I can put up pics of the guts of my dual if anyone is interested... The motor is larger, the chip regulator is different, and the speed is just not good enough. The temps run 5 to 8 degrees high as the motor does it's thing, and it is basically useless. When my old motor and parts wear out, I will just take the chip from inside the single and put it in the dual. I have my old single panel on and it's running within 2 degrees of ambient. It runs it's slight "jagged edges" as the sun goes in and out and the fan takes out the heat built up inside the housing, but the fan does and should continue to run if the sun goes out for at least a few minutes. The painting will make a couple of degrees difference if you put a good 3 coats on the whole housing.
Now these newer fans, particularly the dual solar cell powered fan is not running as fast as the old systems made 3 years (approximately) ago did. The parts have changed, and you can look at my photo and look at the newer system photos and see that. I can put up pics of the guts of my dual if anyone is interested... The motor is larger, the chip regulator is different, and the speed is just not good enough. The temps run 5 to 8 degrees high as the motor does it's thing, and it is basically useless. When my old motor and parts wear out, I will just take the chip from inside the single and put it in the dual. I have my old single panel on and it's running within 2 degrees of ambient. It runs it's slight "jagged edges" as the sun goes in and out and the fan takes out the heat built up inside the housing, but the fan does and should continue to run if the sun goes out for at least a few minutes. The painting will make a couple of degrees difference if you put a good 3 coats on the whole housing.