Eco fans....are they any good?

[Paula]

This may have been discussed before, but as I'm the new girl I'm allowed to ask again. These Eco fans that you put on top of the stove....do they work?

 

Paula

[DHutch]

This has come up a few times, so you might want to have a read of these three threads

 

Eco Fans (Dec 14 2004)

Ecofans Are they any good?

eco fan? (Oct 6 2005)

 

Also, eco fans are refered in several other threads, including these three.

Heating...., Whats the best way to heat my boat..

Keeping the stove in all night

How do you make your boat warm in the mornings?

 

Ive never seen one in operation, But basicly fro what ive seen/heard, there are very nice piece of kit, well made, and quite affective.

- Just a shame there so expensive!!

 

So as for weather or not you get one, i think i depends on your boat and heating requirements.

 

 

Daniel

[Paula]

Thanks for this...I'll look up those threads.

 

Paula

[DHutch]

This may have been discussed before, but as I'm the new girl I'm allowed to ask again.

Sounds fair enought!

 

"The only stupid questions are the ones you forgot to ask" (we ort make the an officall CWF moto!!)

 

But, at the same time, quite often it quicker to search for past threads, read them, and then ask further questions if need be.

 

 

Daniel

[gaggle]

dan search for solar panels,and you will see that panel and solar subjects come up and both could be nothing to do with solar panels.

as for the eco fan i am wondering if a small 12v fan will not do the same job but cheaper,the price of the eco is considerable.

someone said before about a computer fan may be the answer if it could be rigged up.

Edited December 1, 2005 by gaggle

[DHutch]

dan search for solar panels,and you will see that panel and solar subjects come up and both could be nothing to do with solar panels.

And...?

 

I use the search several times everyday, its powerfull tool, and with a bit of care you can find a lot of good stuff very quickly. Its very flexable and after a bit of practice very easly to manipulate (although not quite as good as the search on a vB forum)

- Do a search for "eco fan" thats all i did to get the pages i put in my prevous post.

 

Anyway, If you want to discuss this further, PM me, or start a new thread.

 

 

Danel

Edited December 1, 2005 by dhutch

[DHutch]

And yes, you could generate a very simular affect with a 120mm PC fan (runnning on 5/6volts or somthing) and a suitable heatsink.

 

Ebuyer Extra Value 120mm Fan In Black £0.89 (£1.05 inc VAT)

 

 

Daniel

[bottle]

dan search for solar panels,and you will see that panel and solar subjects come up and both could be nothing to do with solar panels.

as for the eco fan i am wondering if a small 12v fan will not do the same job but cheaper,the price of the eco is considerable.

someone said before about a computer fan may be the answer if it could be rigged up.

 

As Daniel says if you are searching, any "search engine" put the words in quotes and it will search for the exact words in the exact order.

 

Gaggle if you put in solar panels without quotes all search engines will find all the words in any order.

[gaggle]

well i did not intend to have dan throwing his rattle out of his pram,his comment that it could be quicker to do a search, read the outcome of said search and then ask a question presumed that everyone was as adept and as clever as himself using search.also it does no harm to just ask the question in the first place,unless the likes of daniel are now saying they have no time for them that dont know so much

[Bones]

well i did not intend to have dan throwing his rattle out of his pram,his comment that it could be quicker to do a search, read the outcome of said search and then ask a question presumed that everyone was as adept and as clever as himself using search.also it does no harm to just ask the question in the first place,unless the likes of daniel are now saying they have no time for them that dont know so much

 

 

we love you gaggle.... Having struggled with endless searches I am delighted to have Paula ask the question - at least I can look in one place!

 

I am a huge fan of the eco fan (no pun intended), but for my 53ft I don't think I need one - it seems warm all the way through - except the engine room, but I am happy with that. I walk up and down the boat quite a lot so that could be the reason - in which case any fan will do.

[DHutch]

well i did not intend to have dan throwing his rattle out of his pram,

Im not "throwing my rattle out of the pram" or saying that i dont have time for Paula (or other members for that matter)

 

Im just saying that sometimes if you want a quick answer, and the topics likly to have been covered before, it can be quicker to have a rummage around, find a good thread or two, and read them.

- Rather than waiting possably several hours/days for a decent set of replys.

 

I enjoy doing searches and posting the results in once place, and im glad if its helpfull, and i will contiune doing it when ever i have the time.

 

 

 

Daniel

[Paul Evans]

Go for it Dan. I'm really pleased you've still got the brain cells that help you say "I've seen that before, I'll find it, I'll post it up". I'm afraid I just get as far as "I'm sure I've seen that before" and then those senior moments take over.....

[Cris P]

Hi Paula,

From what I can gather they're pretty successful !

I've yet to see someone grumbling about them. Perhaps there will be a flood of hostile comments about ecofans right now.....

[Bones]

Hi Paula,

From what I can gather they're pretty successful !

I've yet to see someone grumbling about them. Perhaps there will be a flood of hostile comments about ecofans right now.....

 

As far as I can gather from talking to people and reading the posts here they are great. My boat is 54ft so I can shift the air around by periodically flapping my arms with cardboard attached which seems to move the air around quickly, although over time the whole boat does get warm (except the engine room which is my reverse sauna so I don't want it to get hot!). They sound like an excellent toy to posess.

 

btw: I fell off my skateboard last night so I wasn't totally frantic in waving my arms and still quite effective - although I probably look VERY stupid - but one has to for the sake of experiments!

[anhar]

As far as I can gather from talking to people and reading the posts here they are great. My boat is 54ft so I can shift the air around by periodically flapping my arms with cardboard attached which seems to move the air around quickly, although over time the whole boat does get warm (except the engine room which is my reverse sauna so I don't want it to get hot!). They sound like an excellent toy to posess.

 

btw: I fell off my skateboard last night so I wasn't totally frantic in waving my arms and still quite effective - although I probably look VERY stupid - but one has to for the sake of experiments!

Great idea Bones, so I tried it but managed to go even further. Having found that the boat can be heated by this excellent method, I've discovered that you can actually propel it too. I've been able to dispense with the horse ever since discovering cardboard autothermal convection technology and adapt it for narrowboat propulsion

 

You stand on the roof so that the cabin structure doesn't get in the way, face forward and rotate your arms, feathering them on the forward stroke so that the card blades are flat whilst the back stroke is made so that the blades are flat on to the air providing max propulsion. The feathering action is critical as your arms come forward, otherwise your forward and back strokes cancel each other out and the boat won't move. A bit like rowing. For the advanced user, you can actually steer too by the process of rotating one arm faster than the other. This causes the boat to turn.

 

You have to be careful when making a turn though, you don't want to look like an idiot.

 

regards

Steve

[viking]

I tested my new Ecofan over Saturday and Sunday night.

 

What to say?

 

Well they certainly do distribute the heat a bit more evenly, although the effect is not exactly earth shattering.

 

Before I had one the front of the boat was stifling whilst the back was freezing. With the fan, the front is hot and the back cool so I suppose that is some sort of result. Whether you consider this to be worth £80 though, only you can decide.

[Catrin]

 

You stand on the roof so that the cabin structure doesn't get in the way, face forward and rotate your arms, feathering them on the forward stroke so that the card blades are flat whilst the back stroke is made so that the blades are flat on to the air providing max propulsion. The feathering action is critical as your arms come forward, otherwise your forward and back strokes cancel each other out and the boat won't move. A bit like rowing. For the advanced user, you can actually steer too by the process of rotating one arm faster than the other. This causes the boat to turn.

 

 

Thanks Steve, I loved this concept, ecologically sound too!

[Guest]

I thought of buying an Ecofan , but I am mean. My solution is a three quid desk fan fan from b and q which came with mains adaptor. At about 5 inch diameter, it moves loads of heat rearwards when mounted on a high shelf; that is where the heat really is.

[DHutch]

Before I had one the front of the boat was stifling whilst the back was freezing. With the fan, the front is hot and the back cool so I suppose that is some sort of result. Whether you consider this to be worth £80 though, only you can decide.

Yeah, i think thats a fairly typical comment on the fans.

 

- But just out of interest, to you consider it worth £80?

 

 

 

Daniel

[Bones]

Yeah, i think thats a fairly typical comment on the fans.

 

- But just out of interest, to you consider it worth £80?

Daniel

 

I'd probably not be a human fan if someone paid me £80quid and I expect they are more reliable than I am.

 

Personally I quite like a chilly bedroom - its good for the health and a good excuse to have duvets and blankets from floor to ceiling. Its never that cold down there.

[ChrisPy]

Thanks Steve, I loved this concept, ecologically sound too!

as long as he only fuels himself up with renewables ......

[viking]

Yeah, i think thats a fairly typical comment on the fans.

 

- But just out of interest, to you consider it worth £80?

Daniel

 

 

I suppose over time yes, after all there is very little to go wrong with it so I suppose/hope it will last through many winter nights. As others have said it is also completely silent and requires no power other than the heat from the stove itself, so no drain on the batteries. As catweasel said though I am sure a desk fan will shift more heat more quickly and more cheaply. Only downside with that is that you have to run an inverter all night unless you are permanently connected to a shore line (or you have a 12v fan).

[alan_fincher]

We'll, on the basis of many recommendations, (not just in this thread, but in several others), we have taken the plunge and spent the 80 quid.

 

I guess, like many others have said, my first reaction on unboxing it was "that can never work".

 

Quickly followed by "I wish I'd come up with something as simple as this, and could sell them in large numbers at 80 quid".

 

But anyway, I tried it today.

 

First small hiccup, is that the instructions say to position it to one side of the chimney, near the back of the stove. Probably OK if you have a Squirrel, but our old Villager Heron (much like the replacement Puffin, I think), is a small stove. You can't really put it where they say without either having the fan hit the chimney, or the base overhanging the side of the top. So it has to stand rather further forward - so I guess may not be getting as much of the cool air it needs, and maybe is not running as fast as they can (?)

 

But it still spins - I was surprised how quickly it "powered on".

 

I think, in our case, I'd agree with the middle of the road comments. Normally the front of the boat is baking, but you don't have to go too far back for it to get a lot cooler. With the EcoFan, I'd say the heat is subtly more spread out, but it never really made it to the back of the boat where I was working.

 

I guess we need to try it whilst using the boat, rather than trying to work on it - I think it will help, but it certainly isn't going to be a substitute for the central heating we don't have, I think.

[Guest]

I suppose over time yes, after all there is very little to go wrong with it so I suppose/hope it will last through many winter nights. As others have said it is also completely silent and requires no power other than the heat from the stove itself, so no drain on the batteries. As catweasel said though I am sure a desk fan will shift more heat more quickly and more cheaply. Only downside with that is that you have to run an inverter all night unless you are permanently connected to a shore line (or you have a 12v fan).

The one we got from b&q will run off dry batteries so it isn't much of a job to run a twelve volt supply into it.