Does anyone use those heat powered fans? I've been looking at them thinking about buying some when the I put the stove in. They look like a good deal using no power. But do they move the air like an electric fan?
Heat powered fan
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I had one for a couple of years before it stopped working. It moved 150 CFM of air which wasn’t a lot. In my opinion it wasn’t worth the money. The only thing I liked about it was I could look at the fan and tell if my stove was still hot by how fast the blades were turning.
Lots of discussions here about these fans. Some pro, some con. I've had one for many years and like it, seems to quietly move just enough air to keep our house temps quite even on the first floor.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/8835/
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/8835/
I used one for about three years until it slowly failed. I contacted the manufacturer in Canada and was told that they have a replacement deal - you send in your failed unit and they sell you a replacement for not much less than a new one. When I complained about the quality of the fan regarding it's failure after only three years use (and how much I spent on it) the customer service rep. told me that the average life of these units isn't much more than three years! I did find replacement parts online - motor and thermoelectric module - but for the money I can buy a plug-in fan that will move much more air and use little electricity.
I've read that these fans can fail due to overheating. Did the fan often see temps over 600 degrees?
BeGreen said:
No... I was always conscientious about the temperature that the fan was exposed to. My Nordic 100 is easy to keep below 600 degrees. I also positioned the fan at the back-end of the stove as per instructions so that cooler air could be drawn over the module. Apparently, these modules generate their electricity from the varying temp. of the module- cool on top and hot on the bottom. I've read more than a few comments online relating to the high failure rate of these fans and although I purchased mine because of my off-grid power supply, there are many options for this application in both dc and ac that operate on minimal wattage and can be purchased for a fraction of this fans cost. I can't say that this fan really moved the air out from the stove very effectively. When it failed and we had no fan we couldn't tell the difference.
While those fans are very appealing to the eye...to me they're just a gimmick if the intended purpose is to move air. If it's air you want to move put in a large ceiling fan that will do its job quietly.
True, 150 cfm is just a gentle movement of air, but often that is sufficient. Ceiling fans are a great solution in many houses, except those with lower ceilings. And there is the issue of moving air during power outages.
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