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Fans to sit on stoves - powered by the heat from the stove.
Cheapest I've seen is about £65 - but are they worth it?
Can you recommend me one?
Not going to recomend a brand but i have one ...a child recently broke it .....missed it while it was being fixed
Its like night and day. Stove plus fan keeps house warm enough ....stove minus fan looks pretty and keeps the living room warmish
Have to concur with Trail_rat.
Think our was about £90 but it's worth it.
Makes a massive difference.
Worth it for less fuel costs or better room heating?
Watches with interest......
Not sure we would benefit from one of these as we have a separate sitting room and dining room and I'm guessing would be of more use with open plan?
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
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.
Keep contemplating one myself but our has no problem heating the house as it is, it may help even the heat around the living room though.
Not all stove fans are the same! shocker!!!!!
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! 🙂
Ha! Id forgotten about Mrs Strat's sideline.
*goes off to eBay [s]sterling[/s] [i]STIRLING[/i] engine hunting...*
Are the Stirling engines noisier than the other type (Thermocouple?)
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.
Stoner - You need a wider impeller blades.
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 🙁
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gratutitous stove shot.
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i trust you have seen this ? with and without fan
I think I paid 45p 😉
I wonder what spec the motor is - because my thermocouple I doubt will put out much power
i have an old motor with bent shaft..... ill have a look tonight see if there are any markings.
not seen that pic. That chair looks very uncomfortable.
Are the Stirling engines noisier than the other type
Quieter I'd imagine.
not according to a quick youtube of stirling engines....
i can vouch for the ecofans being as damn near silent as your going to get.....
If the room is silent then you can hear the blades cutting through the air.
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.
Ah yes but then subtract your aux heatin source
If i dont have the fan on i need to use the oil ch to heat the other downstairs rooms.Upstairs isnt so bad as the heat transfers through the floor
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 😉
Edit - Stoner, nice work
I shall google slyfly uphillcursing, cheers.
so how does that work Dad
cant beat a bit of witchcraft. Static electricity comes under magic too.
If you could make one that oscillates too and market it for under £50?
You could make a killing.
slowfly stoner - slowfly.
how was your resin prop with the heat ?
slowfly it is then...
plastic prop doesnt mind, it's not too hot up there above the stove top and of course its whistling around...
I've got a cassette type stove set into the fireplace. Could I put a fan on the fire surround ?
hmm, dont seem much different to the one I have
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p3984.m570.l1313&_nkw=slowfly&_sacat=0
mst - the base of the fan must heat up and so be in contact with the stove top surface.
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
dvd 1.5 to 4.5 V Dvd motoris the motor on ecofan what ever that means to you ....
alanF
we tried my genuine ecofan on my parents cassette stove cowl
no dice - not that we expected there to be but we tried anyway
what about a fan blade from a small fan ?
im thinking the USB fan in lidl or aldi at the moment might be good for canibalising for motor plus fan blade ?
My parents have a peltier type and have been very impressed - night and day difference, apparently.
too high a voltage trail_rat.
IIRC I have a 3.5v motor. I have a 12v PC case fan in my drawer I could try but at 3.6W/12v Im pretty sure my peltier is not going to move it.
do you have the tec1 peltier on the bay of evil ?
tbh i could use the motor ive salvaged from my current ecofan as ive straightened the motor axle out now and it works from battery now
looking out for a copper flower heatsink.
blue zalmans are a bit garish 😀
the rest i can make out of whats in my shed.
looking out for a copper flower heatsink.blue zalmans are a bit garish
I have no idea what you have written!
yep, a TEC 1
that but in copper
blimey that's a bit fancy.
I just used some clunky old skool ones.[img] https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-NhUUpkd44Qs/Tgjnxiv-u3I/AAAAAAAAABg/hBrYRpDrHUs/s400/IMAG0143.jp g" target="_blank">
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"Stoner - Member
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"
Use cardboard (or similar), oversize blades then trim down. Now I'm not saying that's how things are done in the rotating parts industry but it's a similar concept.
yeah its a bit fancy but i wont be allowed it on the stove if it looks crap
i dont have any heatsinks lying about either - i just threw out my last pc recently 🙁
mt - good thinking there. Next time I have a burn on, I'll have a go.
Any links to some decent stove fans, seen a few on ebay but not sure which to try?
Thanks
[url= http://www.brchobbies.co.uk/catalog/index.php?cPath=99&osCsid=27b0bc233fbd7cac5b1b3c25977dc2cf ]Here for props [/url]
What size is on there now Stoner?
## Edit##
Just watched the video on page 1 😳
I would suggest trying a larger diameter one of similar pitch. I think you will get get better results by far with improved cooling of the upper heatsink. You may then wish to play with pitch to optimize.
Hard to tell from the video but I think you might be able to go increase diameter as much as 2 inches.