Im a tightarse so I built my own.
It doesnt work very well, so one day I might bite the bullet and get a proper one 😉
But it was nice to work out how they go together
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsE4YtzXZe8&feature=g-upl[/video]
Thanks for the replies – the stove in the living room is about 3m from the door to the hall way, so with the door open will the fan circulate the heat into the hall & heat upstairs?
To a certain extent, yes.
We have quite a long lounge and when we got the stove initially fired up I was disappointed with it. We had to close the door to the hall to keep the heat in that room.
Now, I keep the door open to let the heat out and subsequently heat more of the house.
Good for both fuel bill AND better heating.
There are different ways to get the heat from the stove to drive the fan.
The best ones to get are the ones with a ‘stirling’ engine. There is a max temp for some designs and they have to be removed. The ‘stirling’ engined ones don’t have an upper limit.
My wife did loads of research on these, and used to sell them here in France.
They work very well, and are more interesting to watch than the TV! 🙂
we got an ecofan and it made a noticeable difference. Cost something like £80 odd. I searched around on the internet before buying it as prices do vary quite considerably. The people we bought the stove from had one running in their showroom which was where we got the idea. They were selling it for over £100 but that was a bit pricey. The £80 or so was more palateable.
I know, but not sure how much torque that little motor has or where to get the blades from. Might try and make my own, but I dont have any thin ally sheet. That was all I could find on eBay at the time
how much you pay for the blade >? you can get the genuine eco fan blade for 15 quid ….
the parts for eco fans are SERIOUSLY cheap…..
i bought a motor direct for 10 quid , the blades are 15 and you can get a thermocouple from ebay for about 15 quid also(they wont sell you a genuine one) its the heat sink and cooling fin bodys that are expensive
im tempted to build my self a second as you hgave done stoner – with a three blade fan.
the stirling engine one is right up my street(v8 stirling engine !) shame you have to start them by hand 🙁
definitely. ours used to sit in my shed / study – got nicked for the ‘family’ room, works great, subtle increase in warm air circulation — as you say not cheap but mate I spoke to reckoned it was possibly worth a kW onto the stove rating – feasible, and they look great too – just for the “how does that work” factor..
as you say not cheap but mate I spoke to reckoned it was possibly worth a kW onto the stove rating
so at wood fuel costs of about 4p/kWh it would need to be running for 2,000 hours for pay back. Our stove is on for maybe 4-5hrs per evening for 4-5 months of the year = 600hrs.
So 3+ years to pay back….
Closer to ten years if you only use your fire every other evening in winter.
Stoner. If you want a larger diameter prop than that you will need to speak to a model shop that deals with electric flight.
Prop adapter and a selection of props from either giantcod or brc hobbies will come in under a tenner. Trial and error to find the best size then. Would imagine you would need what is called a “slyfly” prop to move plenty of air at relativly low rpms.
I have a Caframo Ecofan, well I say I have one, I lent it to a mate who took the piss out of mine and could not see the point of having one!
He is now converted 😉
The do make a difference, it makes the heat output from a log stove feel more even in a room, less of a hot spot, that and its great fun watching the fan start up as your stove warms up, look kids no batteries, so how does that work Dad 😉
Similar to MST – but I have a cowl on top of the stove which sticks out by about 2 inches.
I’m guessing though the fan wouldn’t be supported on this and possibly wouldn’t get hot enough to make it work