Ecofans

[haggis]

I hesitate to start a new thread on this subject but.....

Kelpie has a diddly little stove which after a few years of cursing and swearing I can manage to get to light and throw some heat out - provided we use Supertherm. The boat came with a two bladed ecofan which only leapt into action once in three years. Feeling magnanimous I bought iain a Sterling four bladed thing for Christmas and this is the first time were have had a chance to use it 

Despite the stove heat being higher than the thing needs it refuses to spin 

Meanwhile the ecofan is spinning away 

I come to the conclusion that ecofans react to their surroundings and ours is letting us know what he thinks of sterling's :-) 

Haggis 

[OldGoat]

38 minutes ago, haggis said:

I hesitate to start a new thread on this subject but.....

Kelpie has a diddly little stove which after a few years of cursing and swearing I can manage to get to light and throw some heat out - provided we use Supertherm. The boat came with a two bladed ecofan which only leapt into action once in three years. Feeling magnanimous I bought iain a Sterling four bladed thing for Christmas and this is the first time were have had a chance to use it 

Despite the stove heat being higher than the thing needs it refuses to spin 

Meanwhile the ecofan is spinning away 

I come to the conclusion that ecofans react to their surroundings and ours is letting us know what he thinks of sterling's :-) 

Haggis 

I'm a fan of CS's kit - but I think it may be a problem with siting.

My neighbour (land based) has just fitted a (large) domestic wood burner with an Aldi (perhaps) ecofan and we were there on Saturday. Lost of heat from the fire, ecofan whizzing round purposefully, I couldn't find any breeze at all...

Very glad that on the boat I've built an arrangement with two 5" computer fans that push the heat out into the main cabin. Even so they're not marvellous; merely 'adequate' When SWMBO cooks a meal the fire diminishes into inconsequence - heat wise.

Just a thought.

  

[Dr Bob]

3 hours ago, haggis said:

I hesitate to start a new thread on this subject but.....

Kelpie has a diddly little stove which after a few years of cursing and swearing I can manage to get to light and throw some heat out - provided we use Supertherm. The boat came with a two bladed ecofan which only leapt into action once in three years. Feeling magnanimous I bought iain a Sterling four bladed thing for Christmas and this is the first time were have had a chance to use it 

Despite the stove heat being higher than the thing needs it refuses to spin 

Meanwhile the ecofan is spinning away 

I come to the conclusion that ecofans react to their surroundings and ours is letting us know what he thinks of sterling's :-) 

Haggis 

I can quite see where you are coming from. Our ecofan ( which isn't an ecofan btw) goes round much faster since we got the duck. 

 

[Iain_S]

It's a Stirling engined one, not by CS, but by Vulcan.

The stove thermometer reached a maximum of 300 C, at which point it should have been working, according to the instruction sheet.

Looking at it, there seem to be a few improvements that could be made.

1) Increase the heat sink area at the "cool end"

2) Balance the crankshaft. At the moment, it quite positively comes to rest with the displacement piston at the bottom (hot end) when the power piston should be on the way down. Better, surely, if it was neutrally balanced, or resting with the displacer at the cool end, when the power piston would be half way through the power stroke?

3) Add a heat insulating gasket between the displacement cylinder and the heat sink. (As built, the metal displacement cylinder is joined to the "hot plate" of the base and the heat sink on top, so there must be a fair bit of heat conduction) Not sure of the best material, possibly Paxolin? (Need to to a bit of research into heat insulating properties of the options!)

 

 

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Glad to see that Haggis has survived Burn's night. The most dangerous time of year. A bit like Christmas for turkeys.

Jen

[haggis]

5 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Glad to see that Haggis has survived Burn's night. The most dangerous time of year. A bit like Christmas for turkeys.

Jen

I ran fast to avoid the hunters :-) 

[Dr Bob]

7 minutes ago, haggis said:

I ran fast to avoid the hunters :-) 

Going back to the 'responding to surroundings' theme, do you think the Vulcan is responding to 'opposites attract' or to be more precise the exact opposite. Are you a clockwise or anti clockwise Haggis? This is important. When we lived in foothills of the Ochills (for 20 years), they farmed haggis on the hill above us and they were predominantly clockwise ones. I suspect your Vulcan rotates in a clockwise direction so maybe it is baulking at the similarity. If it was the ecofan (other rotating fans are available), I would suggest swapping the wires over to make the fan go the other way but I havent a clue how Vulcans are designed. Maybe you could swap a piston over?

(Note: for all those darn sawf who havent a clue what I am going on about, haggis walk around on hillsides (which are usually steep hillsides) so have one leg longer than the other. The ones who walk clockwise round the hills have their left leg considerably longer than their right and the anticlockwise ones have a considerably longer right leg than their left leg. This way they dont fall over. Ten years ago, clockwise ones were preferred by the farmers as then all the birds would go one way round the hillls and casualties caused by birds crashing into each other were reduced significantly. end note)

Let me know if you make any progress. The duck is also interested.

[haggis]

The Stirling which iain says is a vulcan is a clockwise one as is the ecofan so you may be onto something here. The Stirling is currently hanging up (on a hook specially put up for it) and it is definitely hanging it's head in shame at being out spun by a 2 bladed ecofan. 

I am glad the duck is interested and the working fan sends it's best regards 

Haggis 

[Robbo]

4 minutes ago, haggis said:

The Stirling which iain says is a vulcan is a clockwise one as is the ecofan so you may be onto something here. The Stirling is currently hanging up (on a hook specially put up for it) and it is definitely hanging it's head in shame at being out spun by a 2 bladed ecofan. 

I am glad the duck is interested and the working fan sends it's best regards 

Haggis 

I have a Warpfive sterling engine stove fan, it starts (with a little push) at around 100C.  I think something is amiss with your Vulcan.

[haggis]

2 hours ago, Robbo said:

I have a Warpfive sterling engine stove fan, it starts (with a little push) at around 100C.  I think something is amiss with your Vulcan.

We are coming to the conclusion that our fan is not behaving as it should and it will go back home with us. It has been a bit of a damp squib to be honest as we were looking forward to watching it zooming round. Still every cloud has a silver lining as the huffy ecofan has decided it had better start working 

Haggis 

[Robbo]

1 minute ago, haggis said:

We are coming to the conclusion that our fan is not behaving as it should and it will go back home with us. It has been a bit of a damp squib to be honest as we were looking forward to watching it zooming round. Still every cloud has a silver lining as the huffy ecofan has decided it had better start working 

Haggis 

Looking at this vid it should be giving you a heat wave -