Alt Comp

If you have ever sat in front a wood burner on a cold winters night there is every chance that topics like energy efficiency and conservation may have come to mind. You may also have noticed that it always ends up warmer nearer the top of the room than it is at the bottom. Which is a bit of a shame as I am sure given the choice we would much rather have it the other way round. Short of installing underfloor heating there doesn't seem like there is too much we can do about this other than fitting a slow rate ceiling fan. The warmed air is lighter than the cooler air which causes it to rise and move towards the ceiling whilst cooler air accumulates lower down generally closer to seating areas. Most people will describe this as convection and its why you often see central heating radiators placed underneath windows.

Eventually the air becomes stratified or layered and slow moving. So, what can we do to disrupt this effect and encourage more of the warmed air into the most used part of the room? One way that many wood stove owners have discovered is the use of stove top Ecofans. Whilst this term was originally trademarked by Caframo of Candada one of the leading manufacturers of stove top fans, the word has become synonymous with these devices from many different manufacturers. Because of the rise in popularity of wood stoves, more manufacturers have entered the market, and the result of this is that since starting to collect the component parts for this project, and actually completing it, the price of a commercially produced Ecofan has reduced significantly to as little as £36 When I started collecting parts the cheapest Ecofan was around £75 - but costs aside, I was inspired by other peoples efforts at making their own. I am also the sort of person who likes a technical challenge and have always been interested in physics.