Ecofans - the Ultimate test?

[mrsmelly]

1 minute ago, reg said:

Thanks appreciate the work you have put in on this.

Any comments i have made in other threads relate to the ALDI £24 ecofan which basically is a novelty item which I believe does not have any benefits, certainly not enough to warrant taking up stove space but does warrant taking up space in the rubbish bin where it now resides.

Although non of them work whatsoever apart from good old placebo ( not the mexican ) I do think they look nice on the stove and do inform you if you are a little lax when the stove needs refueling so it isnt entirely useless.

[tree monkey]

1 hour ago, reg said:

Thanks appreciate the work you have put in on this.

Any comments i have made in other threads relate to the ALDI £24 ecofan which basically is a novelty item which I believe does not have any benefits, certainly not enough to warrant taking up stove space but does warrant taking up space in the rubbish bin where it now resides.

Which is the type that created the essential oil effect, mentioned many many many pages and threads ago

[Dr Bob]

2 hours ago, tree monkey said:

Which is the type that created the essential oil effect, mentioned many many many pages and threads ago

Given the warm convection current travels down the roof of the boat, it would transport the essential oil smell down 6 metres or so in 1-2 minutes WITHOUT a fan. Even a 'slow' fan could increase this speed  so get the smell down to the back part of the boat in less time. Perhaps the 'slow' fan isnt capable of good circulation at the 0.7m level. Perhaps I am overthinking this?

[Dr Bob]

Привет, Well it was now 2 weeks during my original hack to Dr Bob's account and Mrsmelly only has raised significant objections and that is due to he lives in his boat at 40°C. I am guessing it is a slam dunk then that this was the ultimate test and Ecofans are the wasps knees. I vos expecting a slightly harder time. До свидания

[mrsmelly]

14 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

Привет, Well it was now 2 weeks during my original hack to Dr Bob's account and Mrsmelly only has raised significant objections and that is due to he lives in his boat at 40°C. I am guessing it is a slam dunk then that this was the ultimate test and Ecofans are the wasps knees. I vos expecting a slightly harder time. До свидания

Just had two nights away in an otel wasn't bloomin 40C on here when we came back  Praps iI will nip out and buy an Eco fan to turbo heat the boat back up to running temperature!!

[Dr Bob]

20 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Just had two nights away in an otel wasn't bloomin 40C on here when we came back  Praps iI will nip out and buy an Eco fan to turbo heat the boat back up to running temperature!!

We are off the boat at the moment but back on, on Monday. Not looking forward to the cold boat when we arrive but by the next morning everything is back up to temperature. Light the stove and away we go. Really looking forward to the heat. Its the best thing about the boat in the winter.

[mrsmelly]

6 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

We are off the boat at the moment but back on, on Monday. Not looking forward to the cold boat when we arrive but by the next morning everything is back up to temperature. Light the stove and away we go. Really looking forward to the heat. Its the best thing about the boat in the winter.

We were toasty very quickly. I think the boat moored at the other side of the pontoon must have an eco fan because the side of their boat was glowing yesterday and the heat was transferred across the void and through the steel, insulation and lining directly into our boat such was the intensity!!

[blackrose]

I did my own very simple test about 10 years ago using 2 big Ecofans on each side of my big Morso Panther stove and a digital temperature gauge about 23ft away at the back of the galley of my widebeam. There are no radiators from the stove going back towards the galley and no bulkheads or other obstructions between. Testing with and without the Eco fans over several hours made absolutely no difference to the temperature gauge readings. That may not be a very sophisticated test but it was good enough for me and I sold the Ecofans. I'm not saying that an Ecofan wouldn't work in the narrow confines of a narrow boat where the opportunities for natural warm air convection currents are perhaps more limited, but on my widebeam the fact is that using 2 Ecofans made no discernible difference to the temperature in my galley which is the area furthest from the stove.  

[Dr Bob]

7 hours ago, blackrose said:

I did my own very simple test about 10 years ago using 2 big Ecofans on each side of my big Morso Panther stove and a digital temperature gauge about 23ft away at the back of the galley of my widebeam. There are no radiators from the stove going back towards the galley and no bulkheads or other obstructions between. Testing with and without the Eco fans over several hours made absolutely no difference to the temperature gauge readings. That may not be a very sophisticated test but it was good enough for me and I sold the Ecofans. I'm not saying that an Ecofan wouldn't work in the narrow confines of a narrow boat where the opportunities for natural warm air convection currents are perhaps more limited, but on my widebeam the fact is that using 2 Ecofans made no discernible difference to the temperature in my galley which is the area furthest from the stove.  

I think testing temperature is going to be difficult as you are likely to see only a swing of a couple of degrees C and it could take an hour or so to achieve. On your widebeam, I havent a clue if fans would give the same effect as you say. On the narrow boat, the air flows are pretty significant at high level towards the back and low level towards the front. This will not be the same on a wide beam with I guess different direction flows at high or low level. The fan seems to have a big effect when only 6' something wide. Also I would say that I doubt if we would have seen a temperature rise at 23' back from the fire as the biggest effect seemed to be in the 6-10' from the fire where the air was circulating in a circle (well it would wouldnt it if it was circulating) and so warming the static bit.

If you are doing this test with a temperature probe then you may get strange results if you put the probe in an area where cold air is being pulled back towards the stove, where an efficient fan might actually reduce the temperature. Rather than measure temperature, it would be interesting to hear about air flows and how they change with a fan. Even I think they are not going to work well in a sizable room but in the confines of an nb, then the air flows seem to suggest they do give a good benefit.

[Markinaboat]

On 08/01/2018 at 14:57, Dartagnan said:

Well that’s good enough for me!  Off to Amazon I go for when we get onboard.  Grateful for your efforts.

Don't forget that the boat already has an Ecofan! :-)

[Dartagnan]

51 minutes ago, Markinaboat said:

Don't forget that the boat already has an Ecofan! :-)

Hi Mark

Fortunately I was a tad slow off the mark and was I relieved that I hadn't gone to Amazon when I saw the eco fan onboard Nellie on Saturday

[Dr Bob]

A further update on the Fan test. Aplogies if you saw this data on the 'other' Ecofan thread, but probably worthwhile keeping the 'important' data in one place.

I had a look at fan speed vs stove top temperature using a Titan infrared thermometer and a strobe light app on the phone. Graph of results is below.

The fan starts going round at 50°C but is up to over 1500rpm at 100°C. When its cold outside, I run the stove with a top temp of 180-200°C ish, so the fan is doing 2,500rpm which seems quite fast. A quick and dirty test but not a bad straight line. When I posted the orginal results the stove temp was up at 200°C.

Edited January 24, 2018 by Dr Bob

[Iain_S]

Are you sure the strobe application isn't counting each passing blade as a revolution?

[Dr Bob]

21 minutes ago, Iain_S said:

Are you sure the strobe application isn't counting each passing blade as a revolution?

Hmmm. Interesting. I cleaned one blade so it was black with the others covered in white ' ash' so I was looking for the black blade on the strobe. There are 5 blades so if your right I would have seen 4 light ones then one black one. I didn't notice that effect.  I am going to have to repeat it aren't I? 

If your right, it would have been only doing 400rpm .......it looks far faster than that. Good thinking though!

[WotEver]

Put a mark with Tippex on the hub (or chalk, I guess) and if you’re counting right you’ll see the one mark. Double speed will show two marks. Etc. 

[mrsmelly]

remember NOT TOO close as you could be in mortal danger from the power of the blade. Limb amputations are not uncommon with the 5 blade fan.

[cereal tiller]

4 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

remember NOT TOO close as you could be in mortal danger from the power of the blade. Limb amputations are not uncommon with the 5 blade fan.

A six Blade one may even produce 'Suspension of Disbelief ?

[Dr Bob]

11 hours ago, WotEver said:

Put a mark with Tippex on the hub (or chalk, I guess) and if you’re counting right you’ll see the one mark. Double speed will show two marks. Etc. 

Don't be silly, it's going round to fast to put a mark on. As Mrsmelly says, I would be in danger of loosing my finger.

11 hours ago, WotEver said:

Put a mark with Tippex on the hub (or chalk, I guess) and if you’re counting right you’ll see the one mark. Double speed will show two marks. Etc. 

Now tying to be sensible for a moment, where on earth am I going to find some tippex (went out with the ark) or some chalk on a boat?

[WotEver]

4 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

Now tying to be sensible for a moment, where on earth am I going to find some tippex (went out with the ark) or some chalk on a boat?

Staples

[philjw]

Bit of masking tape?

[Dr Bob]

8 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Staples

My stapler is not powerful enough to penetrate the metal blades which are probably hardened steel considering the speed it is doing.

 

6 minutes ago, philjw said:

Bit of masking tape?

.....hmmmmm. Naw, it will unbalance the perfect symmetry of the unit causing noise and a danger it will fly off and hit the duck.

[philjw]

20 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

a danger it will fly off and hit the duck.

That duck is tough. Think what he suffered in getting to you. Still we don't want to lose his expertise or we may never know the answer

[mark99]

Anything that generates a pertubation has got to work.

 

Always been onside with our Stirling Engine 5 blader.

[Dr Bob]

16 hours ago, mark99 said:

Anything that generates a pertubation has got to work.

 

Always been onside with our Stirling Engine 5 blader.

That's what we need. A perturbation monitor.

I was a milk monitor when I was in skool.

 

......... slaps wrist. This is a serious thread.

[rusty69]

10 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

That's what we need. A perturbation monitor

I nominate MJG.