Heat powered stove top fan

[roitelet]

This one doesn't rattle, the design is a bit different to the ones on Amazon and flea bay

[starloc]

We use one on top of the fire to move air through an in pipe mini air radiator above the woodburner, seems to work to take more heat out of the smoke

[Bill HH]

How do these fans work?

[starloc]

They use the heat from below , Mine works like a mini sterling hot air engine with a piston using heat from the base being on the stove the silent heat motor turns the big fan, some just turn using the rising heat to push the blades
Another, possibly better? way would be a small electric motor fan running off a peltier module that turns heat to electricity, I am going to try this soon

[Bill HH]

This is completely new to me, off to find out more about sterling hot air engines. Thanks for the reply.

[roitelet]

This one has a Thermoelectric module that generates the power to drive the fan. There are two fans one on the side pulls the cool air towards the wood burner and the one on the front circulates the hot air.

[Kier]

I have one too its just free to run but any electric fan would move a lot more air but at a cost, mines a caframo , I like the look of the stirling engine ones they move a lot more air but are very expensive , and have too many bearings so a lot of wear going on

[Patchninja]

We have one that works by heat; I'm sure it makes a small difference!

[roitelet]

it is still mild and there was no need to light the other wood burner last night as the warm air was circulating well, and I DIDN'T HAVE COLD FEET

[Bill HH]

I packed up the wood burning thing years ago, the house stunk of wood smoke, the ashes created dust everywhere, and we had wood lice and nasty things plus bits of wood everywhere. it also went out before the morning just when you need heat to get up and get dressed. You have to empty the ashes which is very messy, chop or split logs and trudge out to get more logs at 1am (often covered in snow and cat poo). Further more when the weather suddenly warms up you are too hot but cant just turn it off!
I adopted a very clever system using a gas boiler which ran on a program timer and heated water which circulated to every room of the house if required, it has a thermostat and invloves no work. Nor does the chimney set fire every year. It is called GAS CENTRAL HEATING.

[Nicos]

Bill...we have a choice of both central heating or 2 woodburners ( one has 2 hobs and a stove)

Which do I prefer?...wood.

I understand what to say about the heat, mess, dust, indoor wildlife, but whilst we have the energy and time, I'll always go for wood.

Brill news roitelet ...money well spent then!

[Bigmallly]

Has anyone any ideas how an ecofan can be used on a high canopy. I have just made a cardboard template for a small shelf to be made out of tin plate that I can fasten round the flue & down the canopy so the fan can stand on it. I'm not sure if it will conduct enough heat. A fan with a magnetic base would be ideal but cannot find one.

[Nicos]

One thing which confuses me is that I thought to destroy magnetic properties of a metal, you had to heat it?
So....how come these flue thermometers stay attached by magnets?

Sorry to go off at a bit of a tangent,but it does confuse me( along with plenty of other things in life!)

[Bill HH]

Bill...we have a choice of both central heating or 2 woodburners ( one has 2 hobs and a stove)

Which do I prefer?...wood.

I understand what to say about the heat, mess, dust, indoor wildlife, but whilst we have the energy and time, I'll always go for wood.

Brill news roitelet ...money well spent then!

Yes a combination is probably a better idea, in our old farmouse we had open fires with baxi grates (air fed underneath from outside and a container underneath that held nearly a weeks ashes) they used coal or logs. You really cant beat a coal fire, we started the evening sat round it and by 11pm we were all pressed againt the outside walls!

The other thing with wood burners is the availability of wood, we had a farm so that wasn't so much of a problem but buying logs is expensive and problamtical if you get 5 tons of wet poplar you are doomed.

I made a machine to compress wet newspaper into blocks, they are ok but take months to dry out.

The hardest thing with gas is do I set the thermo on 4 or 5?

For years we had a coke aga which was superb apart from all the cats used the coke pile as a toilet and that stuff really stinks when burning and puts you off your tea!

[roitelet]

Has anyone any ideas how an ecofan can be used on a high canopy. I have just made a cardboard template for a small shelf to be made out of tin plate that I can fasten round the flue & down the canopy so the fan can stand on it. I'm not sure if it will conduct enough heat. A fan with a magnetic base would be ideal but cannot find one.

The fan doesn't need a great deal of heat. We lit the fire this morning and the first small logs to get it going created enough heat to start the fan. The hotter the fan gets the more quickly it turns. The one we have recommends that if you have a top flue the fan should be to the right of it, and it is recommended that you keep it away from the flue pipe.

With your ingenious mind I am sure that you will come up with something and then perhaps you can patent it!!!