Does it really work

[flatlanderks]

A buddy of mine is moving to Houston and has no need for his Heatwave wood stove fan. (runs from the heat of the stove) He just got it in Dec and offered it to me for $100.

Do they work $100 worth?

 

[jerseydevil]

I have one, and it works about as well as a regular fan, the same size. So, I guess it does help circulate a little. It is now in it's third year and it has not had any failures. The bottom line is, they are very expensive and don't really help to circulate much air. I think it is really a novelty item, and you could run a bigger electric fan for a very long time before your electric cost match up to the cost of these fans.I do have the small version so perhaps someone with a bigger one could chime in. I would not buy one, knowing what I know now!! Sorry, if this wasn't what you want to hear. my 2.

 

[flatlanderks]

Actually, it is exactly what I wanted to hear. I think he really does believe he is giving me a deal, however $100 for a fan is a little steep. When he told me he spent $199+ shipping for it I just about fell over.

 

[timberwolf]

Even runing a 100 watt fan (more like the draw of a ceiling fan) which would be a lot more air movement at a cost of 10 cents a kwh would run for 10,000 hours for the $100. just a penny an hour. About 5 years runing 24 hours a day 3 months a year.

 

[Moddoo]

Hey Guys,
Can I jump in and ask a related question.
Can someone tell me about what it costs me to run my 1/6 hp blower on my forced air wood burning furnace.
It's a 3.4 amp 110 volt.

thanks

 

[habanero]

Hey Guys,
Can I jump in and ask a related question.
Can someone tell me about what it costs me to run my 1/6 hp blower on my forced air wood burning furnace.
It's a 3.4 amp 110 volt.

thanks

Do the math. Watts are amps X volts, so mulitply your amperage by the voltage to get watts, divide that by 1000 to get kilowatts. Your electric bill should tell you what your cost per kilowatt-hour (kwh) is. Multiply your kilowatt rating by your cost per kwh and you get your cost per hour. Remember that is when it is running, so if it isn't running continuously you'd need to factor that in.

 

[Moddoo]

Gracias Habanero

I thought it was that simple, but couldn't believe it.

What I am not sure of is,
3.4A is the maximum draw, I would assume. So I typically would be using less Kwh than calculated?

 

[timberwolf]

1 hp is about .745 kw, so a simple aproach to it is to multiply .745 x 1/6hp = 0.12kw or about 1 amp.

The starting curent will be about 300% of the rated curent, so if it says 3.4 amps max, dividing that by 3 should give you close to the 1.1 amp range or about 130 watts..
Just like saws a lot of rating BS goes on with electric motors.

Hell, I have a 7 HP shop vac so the manufacture claims that runs on a 15 amp 115 volt plug, hmmm, doing the math... Thats 5kw or about 42 amps at 115 volts. So clearly the shop vac does not produce 7 hp, drawing 42 amps , think the 300% start up is being used, haha maybe 14 amps and possibly closer to 2 hp HP might be more the truth.

 

[drmiller100]

so, just for grins, lets look at the REAL cost of running a fan on a stove.

If we examine EXACTLY what the wattage turns into, we find that all the electricity to run a fan is converted to heat. Either it moves air (friction turns to heat) or it is "wasted" due to inefficiencies (more heat).

Meanwhile the fan significantly improves the efficiency of a wood stove. The more cooler air you can throw at a hot object, the cooler the hot object will become, and the more air you will warm.

So, pretty simple. Run LOTS of air past your stove if you want to save money.

 

[timberwolf]

LOL forgot the cost of the wood, are we using modded saws and square chain to cut the wood or not, bringing the wood out of the bush with a team of horses or a 2-stroke 4 wheeler? All going to factor in.

However there is a point that if you put too much cool air over the stove you drop the temp of the combustion chamber and you start to get incomplete combustion and loss of efficiency.

That is one of the bown sides of a water jacket outdoor wood burner.

 

[Moddoo]

I figured that my blower will only cost me about $12.56 if I run it 50% of the time for a whole month.
Not too bad.

drmiller,
You bring up a good point, or 2.
My motor definately gives off some heat. I have a belt driven blower, and I built a duct to pull the air for the blower past/through the motor to help keep it cool.+ the extra heat is blown through the house.

Thanks for the input