Ecofans - are they worth £100?

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 24 Oct 2011, 20:04

Anybody got one for their stove?

I am thinking of investing in one - about £100 - are they worth it or not?

alternative-energy · Post by **alternative-energy** » 24 Oct 2011, 20:15

snow hope wrote:Anybody got one for their stove?

I am thinking of investing in one - about £100 - are they worth it or not?

Good question I'd like to know as well!

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 24 Oct 2011, 20:36

A friend of mine has one. It is very good looking and a fascinating talking point at dinner parties. Will it make your room warmer? No.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 24 Oct 2011, 20:46

Fun, frivolous and flippin' expensive.

In other words, no.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 24 Oct 2011, 21:20

I knew someone who had one on the diesel stove on her boat, who thought it worked. £100 is expensive though.

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 24 Oct 2011, 22:24

I am surprised.

My sitting room is quite big, but it is at one end of my house. Whilst we are very pleased with our stove and it heats a fairly large room (23' x 12') we weren't able to link it up to our existing heating system.

So the downside is that although we can have a toasty warm sitting room, in winter the rest of the house can be pretty cool as I am a bit of a miser with the oil fired heating (still in common use over here in NI)!

Currently once the sitting room warms up we leave the door ajar to let the warm air migrate into the rest of the house, but it doesn't work that well. My thoughts were that if I got one of these fans the warm air in the sitting room would be "blown" into more of the rest of the house because of the positive air pressure caused by the fan. Of course the fact that it has no running costs appealed to me too.

But I will not waste a hundred quid on one if people say they aren't worth it.

Any other positive reports? I would be tempted to buy as logically it seems to make sense. But reality is what counts at the end of the day!

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 24 Oct 2011, 22:31

They do blow the air...a bit, but I doubt that they cause much more movement in the whole room than the natural convection currents arising from the hot stove. You might just about get some advantage in a high ceilinged room with the fan disrupting the convection that sends the heat to the top of the room and mixing the warm air to where you are sitting.

But that doesn't sound like what you are after.

bealers · Post by **bealers** » 24 Oct 2011, 23:43

We have one but it's hard to say if it's effective or not.

The stove sits in an Inglenook and we wanted to push more heat out into the room. Thing is its a big stove so it kicks it out the heat anyway.

The new place we're in is a much smaller lounge and on the couple of occasions we've lit the stove we've had to keep the door open to stop us cooking. We've got the fan pointed towards the door to hopefully push the heat out but as I say it's hard to say whether it's doing that much more then the standard convection one would expect to see.

Reckon it'd be brilliant for a narrowboat or other long space.

Found this on their website, it seems reasonable, but is only a simulation.

Without:

With:

lurker · Post by **lurker** » 25 Oct 2011, 00:42

You could just use an electric fan & hang it above the stove.

I think they push more alot more air than an ecofan from what ive seen. They are also useful when you want to get the oven hot fast on a rayburn. Just set one up infront to blow air in below the fire box for a turbo boost.

Careful they are prone to melting though, but mine still works even semi melted

So maybe get better to get metal one

Round about 30watts power usage isn't to bad imo... & they only cost 10 quid

Ecofan is a lot cooler looking though i know someone who has 2 one either side of there stove.

Post by **adam2** » 25 Oct 2011, 08:56

Yes, a standard electric fan would be much cheaper, and useful for other purposes as well.
The consumption of a small mains powered desk fan is very small and arguably a wise use of power.
12 volt fans are readily available if off grid.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 25 Oct 2011, 11:26

But they would never feature in dinner party conversation.

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 25 Oct 2011, 12:59

I've got a 2kw gas fire in the living room, to the right and behind of it (where the snake lives) got up to 30 last night, when the fire had been on for two hours.
Dont see how a fan would have helped.

Post by **adam2** » 25 Oct 2011, 13:10

DominicJ wrote:I've got a 2kw gas fire in the living room, to the right and behind of it (where the snake lives) got up to 30 last night, when the fire had been on for two hours.
Dont see how a fan would have helped.

It wont help in all cases, but might be a good idea if the area near the fire or stove gets warmer than needed, whilst the other end of the room is cold.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 25 Oct 2011, 14:14

One other thing in their favour, snow. They are totally silent.

PowerswitchClive · Post by **PowerswitchClive** » 27 Oct 2011, 10:35

I have one and it works great on a 50ft Narrowboat...!
It works so well in fact that I was going to get my mum one for her new Morse Stove... It will move the air evenly around the room and warm up the hall as well.
I wouldn't be with out it at mine, even though I have a back boiler and rads, there would be too many hot and cold spots in the living area with out.

PowerSwitch

Ecofans - are they worth £100?

Ecofans - are they worth £100?

Re: Ecofans - are they worth £100?