Ecofans

[carlt]

Next week I'll be experimenting with turning the fan blades to point upwards.

 

I'm hoping to devise a new way of taking a boat out of the water, without the expense of a crane, by hovering it onto hardstanding.

 

Using only the power of a squirrel stove and my "Super-peltier" generator

 

I'm calling it the "EcoHoist".

[smileypete]

I love these "do they, dont they, will they wont they" debates, come on chaps keep it going. I see there a few new faces on this thread since last year's one.

Given me an idea for another green and sustainable product, the EcoMoan!

 

 

Let's face it, boaters love to moan, about pumpouts, cassettes, the BSS, price of diesel, batteries, etc etc...

 

This revolutionary device utilises the moaning energy to actually power a small fan, by way of electricity!

 

The fan then distributes any accompanying hot air around the boat, keeping the wearer at an even temperature!

 

This eco-friendly product is a bargain at 49.99 including postage and packing.

 

cheers,

Pete.

[J R]

Hi,

Am looking to get an ecofan when we get our boat and was wondering, how good they are.

Do they need any power source? Also, can you get ones that rotate on their base to blow the air in different directions?

Thanks

Frank

 

This topic has been thrased around on the board several times before, and there was even a survey. Look at previous posts and make your mind up as to if an ecofan suits you.

 

Contrary to previous posts on this thread, they do not generate their own power (for free). They work from thermo electricity from the heat from the stove. We have had one for 3 plus years and would not be without it. We find it does work (for us). Don't like the idea of a computer fan; all that wiring and use of 12/24v power!

 

If the little monster died/sank would definately get another one. Everyone has an opinion; it is what the individual feels is best.

[mykaskin]

I have a Ecofan (2 blade), and you can actually feel the blown hot air quite a distance from it when it's running fast. It's good for pushing air around the cabin in places the hot air might not normally go, normally it just pools above the stove and takes some getting around the cabin even though it's only a 8 foot long back cabin!

 

Of course once everything has warmed up the effect is less noticable. Remember all it does is move air from where it is a little way away from the stove - however it might help setup other convection currents not normally available without it.

 

As other have said, you can't go wrong with a 12v fan for the price, but you'll have to run power to it. The Ecofan uses a Thermocouple to create electricity from the thermal difference between the base and the top (hence the heat sink) to run a slow running motor and large bladed fan. Most 12v fans run fast with little fans.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

[RLWP]

Next week I'll be experimenting with turning the fan blades to point upwards.

 

I'm hoping to devise a new way of taking a boat out of the water, without the expense of a crane, by hovering it onto hardstanding.

 

Using only the power of a squirrel stove and my "Super-peltier" generator

 

I'm calling it the "EcoHoist".

 

Please make sure that you have the motor wired the right way around so that it does actually lift. Otherwise when the blades dig into the water your boat will be pushed firmly into the silt

 

Richard

[Guest]

I don't have one, have never had one, and never will have one unless I find a working example in a skip, or someone donates one to me etc.

I care little if they work or not; I have a very low power (though admittedly not free power) fan system that cost a tenner and is extremely quiet. The air movement is easily demonstrated with smoke.

 

What bothers me about Ecofans is that nobody quotes any figures. If I buy an extractor fan for example, I get meaningful figures such as wattage (motor HP), air movement in CFM (or whatever the unit is today) etc.

 

I have never seen any meaningful figures for the ecofan. Can anybody enlighten me?

[Pretty Funked Up]

Contrary to previous posts on this thread, they do not generate their own power (for free). They work from thermo electricity from the heat from the stove. We have had one for 3 plus years and would not be without it. We find it does work (for us). Don't like the idea of a computer fan; all that wiring and use of 12/24v power!

If you swap 'thermo electricity', what ever that is, for TEG youd be closer.

I know its not for free, nothing is ever free, but just how much do those logs found in the hedge cost?

 

The 120mm low rpm fans are difficult to hear and 2 of em only draw 0.3a. I only use them in the summer as I have a back boiler and the heat is pumped around the boat.

 

Your far better off getting one of the units we're discussing in the 'log burner power' thread, it will move the air and trickle charge your batteries. Come to think of it they officially make ecofans obsolete and totally pointless. Unless you just like them as an ornament, but those posts shouldnt be in the equipment section

Edited November 1, 2010 by Pretty Funked Up

[RLWP]

Will no-one think of all the Punkah-Wallahs being put out of work by these demonical machines

 

Richard

[Guest User]

Will no-one think of all the Punkah-Wallahs being put out of work by these demonical machines

 

Richard

 

... no

 

(but I was thinking of lighting a fire under a Rutland to get electric on wind-free days)

[Québec]

I have never seen any meaningful figures for the ecofan. Can anybody enlighten me?

Some figures (on page 2), however you wish to interpret them, or take them seriously.

 

http://www.electronconnection.com/EC.1/images/HH76.pdf (p2)

[Phil Ambrose]

I don't have one, have never had one, and never will have one unless I find a working example in a skip, or someone donates one to me etc.

I care little if they work or not; I have a very low power (though admittedly not free power) fan system that cost a tenner and is extremely quiet. The air movement is easily demonstrated with smoke.

 

What bothers me about Ecofans is that nobody quotes any figures. If I buy an extractor fan for example, I get meaningful figures such as wattage (motor HP), air movement in CFM (or whatever the unit is today) etc.

 

I have never seen any meaningful figures for the ecofan. Can anybody enlighten me?

 

Not 100% sure of this but seem to recall seeing figures quoted in Ecofan bumf, a vague memeory of 100cu ft/hour seems to be floating around (perhaps wafting would be more apt) could this be correct?

 

Phil

[ymu]

I have a Ecofan (2 blade), and you can actually feel the blown hot air quite a distance from it when it's running fast. It's good for pushing air around the cabin in places the hot air might not normally go, normally it just pools above the stove and takes some getting around the cabin even though it's only a 8 foot long back cabin!

 

Of course once everything has warmed up the effect is less noticable. Remember all it does is move air from where it is a little way away from the stove - however it might help setup other convection currents not normally available without it.

 

As other have said, you can't go wrong with a 12v fan for the price, but you'll have to run power to it. The Ecofan uses a Thermocouple to create electricity from the thermal difference between the base and the top (hence the heat sink) to run a slow running motor and large bladed fan. Most 12v fans run fast with little fans.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

Agree with all of that except the last paragraph. They do work - the stove on our last boat was in the middle of the boat and the bedroom was noticeably warmer when it was pointed in that direction instead of towards us in the living room. We used to have covert battles to position it as we wanted it - my partner liked the bedroom cold and the living room overly cosy, I am the opposite. I always won the battle because I sat closer to the stove and could always tell when he'd silently moved it.

 

For best results, you're supposed to position it so that it draws air from behind the stove, but our last stove was too small to do this and it still did the job.

 

However, the 'free' electricity thing is wrong.

 

Firstly, it's using heat - albeit a miniscule amount - from the stove to generate the electricity. You lose slightly more energy from the heat output than you gain in electrical power. The effect of redistributing the heat better makes this worthwhile, but it's not 'free'.

 

Secondly, you'd have to run one for at least a century with no repair costs before it was cheaper than buying a computer fan and running it off the batteries. It's not even more eco-friendly than a computer fan - the materials it uses are no more sustainable than burning diesel to power a computer fan. The amount of electricity used to power a fan shouldn't trouble any battery or make any noticeable difference to leccy consumption.

 

They are very pretty, a great way to judge the amount of heat the stove is putting out, an easy way to see how well a new fire is taking, and a nice early warning system that the fire is dying down. But it is an expensive solution, and the eco bit is misleading nonsense.

[carlt]

the eco bit is misleading nonsense.

Then you haven't understood the basic principle, of the Ecofan.

 

It has been scientifically proven, by researchers at the "Institute of Pointless Studies Financed by the Companies that Profit from such Research" (IPSFCPR), that if all the naysayers bought an Ecofan, then put it on their stove, the resultant cooling effect would counteract the global warming effect of Carbon Dioxide emissions, thus saving the planet.

 

We can save the World! Buy an Ecofan!

[mayalld]

Not "end of" if it's the rising hot air from the stove that is making the blades turn.

 

Regardless of the debate as to whether they actually work or not, which is necessarily subjective, can we once and for all dispel the myth that raises its ugly head every time the subject is debated.

 

Ecofans are NOT driven by the rising hot air. They are driven by a peltier effect generator, which generates a small amount of electricity to drive a motor.

[Bimbly1]

On my 60 footer, a two blade Ecofan at the fore end of the saloon has taken the chill off the galley & bathroom at the centre/rear of the boat. The main problem I have is remembering to lie it down when under way. It's footprint is too small for the size so is unstable when on the move and does not function well as a helicopter.

[mykaskin]

However, the 'free' electricity thing is wrong.

 

Of course I never mentioned that there was "free" electricity - I wish people would read things more carefully on this forum!

 

Of course, nearly all energy ends up as heat anyway (entropy), so you could say that much of the energy used ends up as heat anyway! The air movement causes friction and warms the air, the motor has losses which end up as heat etc!!

 

Good point on the "Eco" thing though, many people don't realise just how much materials and processing go into these so called "green" items. I've heard it said that Solar Panels create last power over their life time than goes into making them - not sure if it's true though.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

[Justme]

I've heard it said that Solar Panels create less power over their life time than goes into making them - not sure if it's true though.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

 

 

Not even close.

 

They "pay back" the carbon / energy in about 4 years. They should provide power for 25-50 years.