Ecofans

[MtB]

Their main function is as an audible stove thermometer, as I keep sayin'!

 

 

MtB

[Rambling]

Lol, well I didn't actually look and count. 5 blades it is.

[Bettie Boo]

 

Even weirder. My Stirling engine fan has FIVE blades!

 

Like this:

 

 

MtB

ahhhh now I do quite like the look of that one

[MtB]

ahhhh now I do quite like the look of that one

 

 

Side view. Very pretty gubbins on show!

 

[wreckferret]

That is the one santa is bringing me

[Phil Ambrose]

That is the one santa is bringing me

STOP at once, one more use of the "S" word and you will be banished for eternity.

Mustaphafag

[Québec]

For those who prefer science to religion, here's the detailed science, carried out by the University of Waterloo in Canada.

 

http://www.ecofan.ch/pdf/Studie_Energieeinsparung_Ecofan_komplett.pdf

 

And here's the short version, produced - it has to be said - by Caframo, the company that makes them and commissioned the research

 

http://www.ecofan.co.uk/pdfs/ecofanstudyadsept2010.pdf

Edited October 20, 2014 by Québec

[Proper Job]

I'm watching mine now as I write (at home). As our woodburner is recessed into the old chimney alcove, convection alone was never enough to heat the room. Now the whole room is warm, even extending to the computer cupboard. It's an ecofan lookalike from eBay, about £70 two years ago, just 2 bladed.

 

I have my doubts about it shifting warm air from one end of a long narrow tube to the other, though.

 

The GF had a similar scenario

 

Woodburner sat in huge enclosed hearth and yes the fire did warm the room but you had to have it going well.

 

I got her a fan and it genuinely transformed the room. The fire doesn't have to be roaring anymore and there's plenty of warmth in the room and adjacent rooms now.

 

Mine on the boat does assist the movement of air and certainly helps de-stratify it, but it's no where near as effective in a long thin tube as it is in a big wide room.

 

It's effective for about 10 - 15 feet (good for the average room). Don't expect it to blow air to the back of the boat.

[Guest]

For those who prefer science to religion, here's the detailed science, carried out by the University of Waterloo in Canada.

 

http://www.ecofan.ch/pdf/Studie_Energieeinsparung_Ecofan_komplett.pdf

 

And here's the short version, produced - it has to be said - by Caframo, the company that makes them and commissioned the research

 

http://www.ecofan.co.uk/pdfs/ecofanstudyadsept2010.pdf

Really interesting.

 

The GF had a similar scenario

 

Woodburner sat in huge enclosed hearth and yes the fire did warm the room but you had to have it going well.

 

I got her a fan and it genuinely transformed the room. The fire doesn't have to be roaring anymore and there's plenty of warmth in the room and adjacent rooms now.

 

Mine on the boat does assist the movement of air and certainly helps de-stratify it, but it's no where near as effective in a long thin tube as it is in a big wide room.

 

It's effective for about 10 - 15 feet (good for the average room). Don't expect it to blow air to the back of the boat.

Never had an ecofan, but based on messing around with a powered fan, that is what I would have expected from a low powered unit.

[Québec]

Like many our bathroom lies between the open living area/kitchen and the bedroom creating a narrow corridor. So no surprise that warm air from the stove + Ecofan at the front of the boat doesn't get past it. Our solution has been to curtain off the corridor, keeping the living/kitchen area noticeably warmer. Before bedtime we open the curtain and usually using the day's newspaper I become a punkah-wallah and waft the air towards the bedroom. Works for us.

[carlt]

 

I am not meaning to belittle the ecofan, was just interested if anybody had taken before and after temps..

Yes I did.

 

One came free with a boat and, being a research scientist type, i took various temperature readings at all points in the boat with fan on or off the stove and with varying stove temperatures.

 

I repeated the experiment with the Rayburn.

 

Bearing in mind this was an ex-working boat with a completely open plan undertarp conversion you would expect the maximum effect, compared with a boat with cabins.

 

I used to be a research engineer developing Carbon Fibre production processes so temperature gradients are most definitely my thing, btw.

 

After I finished the experiment I gave the Ecofan away because I could detect no difference with or without it on the stove ...to someone else with an ex-working boat with an open plan under-tarp conversion who swears it is the best gift she's ever had and makes a huge difference to the warmth of the cabin extremities.

 

I could only conclude that, like faith healing, Ecofans only work if you believe they work.

[Sabcat]

Yes I did.

 

One came free with a boat and, being a research scientist type, i took various temperature readings at all points in the boat with fan on or off the stove and with varying stove temperatures.

 

I repeated the experiment with the Rayburn.

 

Bearing in mind this was an ex-working boat with a completely open plan undertarp conversion you would expect the maximum effect, compared with a boat with cabins.

 

I used to be a research engineer developing Carbon Fibre production processes so temperature gradients are most definitely my thing, btw.

 

After I finished the experiment I gave the Ecofan away because I could detect no difference with or without it on the stove ...to someone else with an ex-working boat with an open plan under-tarp conversion who swears it is the best gift she's ever had and makes a huge difference to the warmth of the cabin extremities.

 

I could only conclude that, like faith healing, Ecofans only work if you believe they work.

 

Interesting. How long did you leave the ecofan on before you took your after temperatures?

[carlt]

 

Interesting. How long did you leave the ecofan on before you took your after temperatures?

 

It was over 15 years ago so the exact details are vague but it took several days with temperatures taken at regular intervals.

 

I would have liked to repeat the experiment in my friend's boat but I'd have had to move in with her for a week and we weren't that close...

[Sabcat]

 

It was over 15 years ago so the exact details are vague but it took several days with temperatures taken at regular intervals.

 

I would have liked to repeat the experiment in my friend's boat but I'd have had to move in with her for a week and we weren't that close...

 

I've never took a thermometer to it so I've no data to use to doubt your conclusions. I suppose it's the same as a room feeling warmer with a stove with a visible flame or in fact the TV on. The ecofan is turning so I feel warmer. This is good because now I can just wire one up to a couple of batteries and dispense with the coal, I'll save a fortune.

[Guest]

Yes I did.

 

One came free with a boat and, being a research scientist type, i took various temperature readings at all points in the boat with fan on or off the stove and with varying stove temperatures.

 

I repeated the experiment with the Rayburn.

 

Bearing in mind this was an ex-working boat with a completely open plan undertarp conversion you would expect the maximum effect, compared with a boat with cabins.

 

I used to be a research engineer developing Carbon Fibre production processes so temperature gradients are most definitely my thing, btw.

 

After I finished the experiment I gave the Ecofan away because I could detect no difference with or without it on the stove ...to someone else with an ex-working boat with an open plan under-tarp conversion who swears it is the best gift she's ever had and makes a huge difference to the warmth of the cabin extremities.

 

I could only conclude that, like faith healing, Ecofans only work if you believe they work.

Interesting conclusion

[Jim Riley]

Kettle on stove gets to a low simmer with fan on stove. Without fan it boils. It works.

 

Mind you I do put a little snake oil on the motor bearings, it increases the voles watt make it turn amply.

[carlt]

Kettle on stove gets to a low simmer with fan on stove. Without fan it boils. It works.

 

Take the blades off and I bet it will still act as a heat sink and lower the hot plate temperature.

[casper ghost]

For those who prefer science to religion, here's the detailed science, carried out by the University of Waterloo in Canada.

 

 

My research= completely useless bit of kit. Spend the money on more coal, alot of coal, given the vast cost of these lumps of sculpture..

Casp'

 

 

I could only conclude that, like faith healing, Ecofans only work if you believe they work.

That is exactly what I telll my boss, at my appraisals about myself...

Casp'

[Machpoint005]

Interesting that on the Ecofans web site they have a graph purporting to show 'efficiency' (graph 2) -- but it's just a bar chart of temperatures. There is only one variable, no comparison between 'energy in' and 'energy out'. That makes me reluctant to accept the maker's claims. Carlt's experiments would seem to suggest my scepticism is well founded.

In other words, if the heat energy is there already, why waste some by converting it onto electricity, then converting the electrical energy into kinetic energy?

[Rambling]

surely they are for even distribution of heat rather than making anything hotter??

 

I noticed on my 40ft that the temp seemed lower but more even. But with the new 70ft and bigger fan, it definitely distributes and pushes heat to places that never saw much heat before (brr) and that is very useful when chilly in the back of the boat.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Rambling

[Phil Ambrose]

Quite right they do not make more heat but they disrupt the thermal currents that establish themselves in the vicinity of the stove and the "draft" they create encourages the heat to move away from the stove. I have already posted that I had one on my previous boat and surely as a reasonably sane person if it had not have worked I wouldn't have had one on my present boat, as already said, curtains flutter in the flow from the fan so air MUST be moving about, but hey ho if you don't want one, don't have one, it matters not to me.

Phil

[mark99]

In an analogy it's like huddling round those radiant electric heaters (the ones with a glowing orange bar) or having a blower electric heater. The blower helps.

 

Albeit the stove fan, unless it's a stirling 5 blader on a hot stove is not moving massive chunks of air and a stove is generaly more KW than an electric radiant heater.

 

The link above (scientific paper) did show a quantified effect if you can be bothered to read.

Edited October 21, 2014 by mark99

[dor]

With the stove at the front and the bed at the back, with a corridor past the bathroom, I am not convinced that it makes much difference to the temperature in the bedroom. However where it certainly does make a difference is the the vertical head gradient in the saloon.

 

I'm sure we have all been there - freezing feet and boiling head; this is much less pronounced with the fan. Yes you could do the same with a 2 watt computer fan, but the Ecofan is a little more decorative.

[Kae]

I like my ecofan purely for the "man's toy windmill" effect, and for the only useful purpose that it gives a visual indication of how hot the stove is and whether it's going to be in need of fuel shortly or not.

Saying that, it came with the boat, I wouldn't have bought one.

[carlt]

If it is adequately ventilated then there is far more air movement around your boat than an Ecofan could ever produce.

 

One of the things I recall from my tinkering was that if the hold door spy hole was open (a hole about 3" in diameter) then the temperature gradient along the boat flattened noticeably as the warm air was distributed by the draught whereas the change was negligible with the Ecofan and was as likely to be due to folk moving around the boat as the expensive toy on the stove.